This blog is not in any way technology-related, but as an Internet user, I must help inform even a few people what the future Internet looks like if SOPA passes.
SOPA stands for "Stop Online Piracy Act" - a proposed bill in the United States House of Representatives and PIPA (Protect IP Act) in the U.S Senate- They are two proposed bills that would allow Department of Justice and copyright owners to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling copyright infringements. - Actions could include taking down any website that would link to allegedly infringing website.
There is already an act that requires websites such as Youtube to take down any videos that contain infringing content. Say, you uploaded a video of yourself, singing or dancing, Youtube may pull it down because of the song you use. But they are not directly responsible for your action. Now if it passes, Youtube can be blocked any time or maybe put on the blacklist, you could as well, face legal action because of using a copyrighted material.
So you may think, No, they can't drag me into courts because I'm not from the U.S! Yes, but think about this since SOPA allows to go after the ISPs (Internet Service Providers). Large websites, advertising networks, or payment processors from the United States such as Paypal. They could simply require any of those to block and ban you from doing business with them. That would truly hurt me since I am working online and rely on Paypal to receive my compensation.
Bloggers are sure easy targets since what we do is share information. Blogging is all about sharing and promoting. Since my blog is still hosted in blogger, which is owned by Google. They could easily take this blog down, as well as Google—even if I am just sharing an effective product I tried or just by simply linking an unknowingly infringing blog/website. And also, my domain name is registered in the US too. So no, they can't drag me to jail, but they can easily shut this blog down, block me from here and there. A single complaint is all it takes.
How it can affect most users?
Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, Wikipedia and so many more giant websites we frequent are all in the United States. Since they would become responsible of what their users would share, how can they guarantee that none of their millions of users will upload or share any copyright infringing material? If SOPA passes, expect limited amount of information all over the Internet. Social Media would be dead.
Web Goes on Strike
Big names such as Google, Wikipedia, Reddit, Tumblr, Mozilla, Wordpress, ETSY, Vimeo, Flickr and many more participate in the protest against SOPA. Wikipedia even blacked out all of their English articles for 24 hours as a protest against SOPA.
It's not too late late to take part, you may sign your petition here:
SOPA STRIKE
Not in the US? Petition the State Department
