Proposed bills would censor websites
Even though the Web is a relatively new phenomenon, it would be hard to imagine working, (procrastinating), communicating, learning, entertaining ourselves and connecting without it.
But we may get to find out.
The last few months have seen more and more calls online for opposition to two bills currently before Congress: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House and Protect Intellectual Property Act (Protect IP) in the Senate.
The bills are misguided attempts to reign in piracy and copyright infringement by an entertainment industry (most notably Hollywood studios) that has struggled to keep up with the rapidly changing, increasingly tech-based world that has turned their business models upside down.
Rather than trying to combat piracy by offering consumers convenient and useful services, these huge, multinational corporations have poured millions into politicians pockets to get them behind these two bills. And it’s worked; the bills have numerous co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle.
(Why is this the one thing Republicans and Democrats can see eye to eye on? Oh right, because both sides respond well to dollar signs.)
So, what’s the big deal, you ask? After all, you don’t pirate movies or download music illegally. (Of coooourse not.)
Here’s the big deal: This bill will not only fail at stopping piracy, but it will result in collateral damage that is tantamount to the kind of blatant censorship that we decry in countries like China and Iran.
The broadly defined terms in the bill mean that nearly every website would be affected. This sounds like hyperbole — but it’s not.
If a website you visit is deemed to be an offender, you’ll simply be unable to visit that site. Think of it this way, it would be like how your workplace or local library block websites like Facebook … except it would be for every single person in America.
And because of the way the bills are written, a site like Facebook that includes user-generated content could be shut down if any (any!) user posts or links to content that infringes copyright. And so you have entire sites of legitimate content shut down because of one offending link. Say you have a personal blog on tumblr or blogger, and post a picture of the movie poster for The Dark Knight Rises, the movie studio can have the entire site shut down.
And it’s not just websites. If you or your loved one posts a YouTube video of yourself doing karaoke to your favorite song, you could face felony charges and up to five years in prison.
Countless Internet experts, companies, organizations, legal experts, tech writers, and the like are joined by prominent companies — Google, Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Wikipedia, eBay (perhaps you’ve heard of them?) — to oppose this bill. These people know how the Internet works. The way these bills are written proves the 535 members of Congress clearly do not.
The Internet accounts for $2 trillion of our GDP, and these bills would not only kill innovative startups, but be a disaster for everyone in business other than lawyers.
Moreover, this is the exact kind of technical censorship that allows Chinese government officials to stifle political dissent — and we’re about to write it into law here.
The passage of SOPA and Protect IP won’t immediately usher in a dystopian world where the federal government and huge corporations can block what you see and hear online — but it makes it terrifyingly possible.
If you’re OK with that, by all means do nothing.
If not, pick up the phone and tell your local congressmen to not support SOPA and Protect IP. Freedom, innovation and the economy are at stake. The D.C. Office numbers for your Congressmen are printed below.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, 202-224-6324
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, 202-224-4254
U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, 202-225-2431
U.S. Rep. Mark Critz, 202-225-2065
If you’d like to put him behind a firewall, Brandon Szuminsky can be reached at bszuminsky@heraldstandard.com.