The United States House of Representative's Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) and its counterpart in the United States Senate, the Protect Intellectual Privacy Act (PIPA), have had a lot of focus in the media over recent weeks as such acts could potentially censor certain elements of the internet. So how does this affect me? Before I address the aforementioned question, first, we must understand the basics of the proposed legislation.
SOPA and PIPA were designed, primarily, to combat media piracy outside of our borders, such as The Pirate Bay and Megaupload, by seeking injunctions against advertisers to prevent funding of web addresses which are deemed to have copyright violations. Originally, both laws had a provision which would mandate Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as AT&T and Comcast, to block users from connecting to blacklisted IP addresses, however, due to major concerns this provision was dropped from both pieces of legislation.
So how does this affect me? If both pieces of legislation were to pass Congress and media corporations would be given the legal power to deny access to any web address with questionable copyright infringements. Below is a list of two everyday examples:
Youtube: Videos with copyrighted material could have the website blocked if Google fails to remove all the content.
How could this affect you? Say, for example, you filmed a video of a concert you attended and subsequently uploaded the material, because you didn't have expressed permission to use the music or likenesses in the video.
Facebook: Status updates or posts with questionable links or references to free content could have the website blocked as well.
How could this affect you? Limited to blocked access of Facebook content.
SOPA & PIPA were designed to protect media companies and does not benefit the majority if Americans in any substantive way unless your personal fortune is directly associated with the growth of media sales.
So what has Congress done for me lately?
VERDICT: Nothing
