Online Piracy
March 11, 2012 Twitter, Facebook, Google, Wikipedia and many other sites are some of the most common ways people communicate and use as a leg for viral services. Two laws that are being placed into effect will serve as a hinder to users of the internet and also to many of the websites. If they were to be censored or “taken away” people would be left dangling wondering what next. I will inform my audience about the laws (SOPA AND PIPA), how it will censor sites, which sites may be affected, what sites did to prevent it, and when were they introduced.
Also how censorship may cause some sites to shut down completely. The two laws will cause them to lose their viral services, no longer being able to inform users with information. SOPA (stop online piracy) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) are two acts that are going to be used to censor the internet and sites affiliated with it. SOPA is a United States bill introduced to expand the ability of U. S law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted property and counterfeit goods as stated on local website Wikipedia.
According to Wikipedia PIPA is a proposed law with the stated goal of giving the US government and copyright holders’ additional tools to curb access to “rogue websites dedicated to infringing or counterfeit goods”. These are both acts that are going to serve as a blockage to the internet. SOPA was first introduced on October 26, 2011 and PIPA introduced May 12, 2011 according to Jamal a local writer. Although they were both introduced recently they are both put on hold due to sites petitioning and finding ways to fight against the two.
Sites that would be affected by the two acts were sites like Wikipedia, Google, and many other sites that may provide things like music downloads and other information. To fight against the acts some sites went as far as taking online petitions like having there users go as far signing their email addresses and states to help take a stance. Sites also put a black bar against their logos to show dedication. When asked in a survey that I took “do you think that the internet should be censored? ” 16 out of 20 students said that it shouldn’t the other 4 were undecided.
This one question showed just how much students rely on the internet services because if the internet were to be censored they would have no usage of it. Internet sites will shut down due to them not abiding by the standards of the two acts. Sites that the law feel are using more media that is copyrighted and they don’t have permission will be terminated. Which because of this will of course wipe out a majority of the sites that we use. When asked in a survey “what social networks and websites do you use? And if they weren’t available what would you do? ” I received answers like Google, Wikipedia, twitter, and Facebook.
People also said that if they weren’t available for use they wouldn’t have a way to do work and maybe not a way to express themselves. Because this would cut into students work this would then become an academic problem which should make law makers think their decisions over. Throughout my paper I discussed what SOPA and PIPA are, what websites were affected and what they did to put a stop to it, and also just who it would affect. These two acts are not yet put into to effect but should be taken noticed to. If SOPA and PIPA were put into effect they may affect not only you but a whole nation.
