Everything You Need to Know About SOPA

If you are not all aware by now, you NEED to beware NOW!! I”m talking about the Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA for short. SOPA, also known as H.R. 3261, is a bill that was introduced into the United States House of Representatives on the 26^th of October in 2011, by House Judiciary Committee Chair Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) and a bipartisan group of 12 initial co-sponsors. The bill expands the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.

SOPA would allow the U.S. Justice Department, as well as copyright holders, to go and get court orders against websites that are accused of copyright infringement. Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include exclusion of online advertising networks and payment facilitators, such as PayPal, from doing business with an allegedly infringing website, also barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for 10 such infringements within six months. The bill also gives immunity to Internet services that voluntarily take action against websites dedicated to infringement, while making liable for damages any copyright holder who knowingly misrepresents that a website is dedicated to infringement.

Now after reading that, I know what you’re probably thinking, well what’s so bad about the Government stepping up and protecting our online property? Well it’s not the thought that counts in this situation, more the process their going about it. It may sound all fine and dandy, but basically anybody can accuse you of being an infringer and have your website blacklisted without any due process to you, and have immunity from you getting back at them for disrupting your business. People have seen this and are starting to speak out and protest. After Go Daddy announced support for the bill, we all saw the public’s reaction. They lost over 21,000 domains in just one day. After being boycotted, they decided to stop supporting SOPA.

Most of the arguments against SOPA are that it goes against our first amendment right to free speech, and websites that host user uploaded content would be negatively affected. So all those social media website that you love so much, like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr and Vimeo will all likely have to shut down if this bill comes to pass. Some analysts for the New America Foundation say this legislation would allow for an entire domain to be taken down due to something posted on a single blog, and an entire, largely innocent, online community could be punished for the actions of a tiny minority.

I don’t know about you, but this just doesn’t sit right with us here at TriLeaf Designs. Take action now and protect your online freedom. Speak out at your next town hall meeting. Write a letter to your congressman and senator. Go to www.americancensorship.org/ to see information about what’s going on in your state, and a many ways you can take action quickly, easily and painlessly.

By Le-Andris Daniel