SOPA. Today, I learn something that I fear may change the way we see the internet. I just learn that US Senate is currently drafting Bill that may censor the internet. Yes, you read it right. Censor the internet. the If you’ve been living under an Internet-free rock the past couple of weeks, you might have managed to miss the steady drumbeat of opposition to HR 3261, the so-called Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Then again, if you’ve been living under an Internet-free rock, you’ve already had a preview of what we’re facing if SOPA goes into effect.
The Stop Piracy Online Act (SOPA), which was introduced in the House of Representatives in late October, aims to crack down on copyright and trademark issues. If SOPA passes, copyright holders would be able to complain to law enforcement officials and get websites shut down. Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) executive chairman Eric Schmidt called the bill “draconian” during a speech in Boston on Tuesday. “We support the bills’ stated goals,” the letter reads. “Unfortunately, the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities [and] mandates that would require monitoring of web sites.”
One site covered SOPA earlier this week and the EFF’s efforts to rally opposition to the bill. But today is American Censorship Day and a hearing for the bill in the U.S. House that’s stacked in favor of the bill.
SOPA from techkicker.com
SOPA’s critics — some of the Internet’s most heavily trafficked sites — launched an awareness campaign on Wednesday. Hundreds of sites adopted black “STOP CENSORSHIP” logos, including BoingBoing, Reddit and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
As I said above, American Censorship Day is organized by Mozilla, the Free Software Foundation, PublicKnowledge, Demand Progress, the EFF, Creative Commons and a number of other organizations. I happened on the page thanks to a “censored” logo in the Disqus dashboard while moderating comments. If you’d like to get your own “censored” logo, or if you want to learn a bit more, head over to AmericanCensorship.org.
On other side of the story, of course Proponents of the SOPA bill dismiss accusations of censorship. They said that they just want to protect US Market from those who engage in criminal behavior. Proponent also said that online piracy lead to more job loss in the US.
You can watch SOPA press conference conducted on 15 Nov 11 on below video :
SOPA is just a good scare they gave us, to know they have the power to pull the plug. I doubt they would have actually done it, but i believe they”ve made their point.
Megaupload went down at the same time, and because of SOPA not many people cared. After that other filehosting websites got scared and shut down. It’s a domino and no one knows where it stops.
Shirley Blue´s last [type] ..career organizing
SOPA and ACTA are BAD. Actually it was government who tired broke our freedom and america are protest against SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA.
No one like ACTA. ACTA is the 2x worst than SOPA.
Peggy´s last [type] ..Goldsilverfactor