New bills were sent to Congress with the intent of stopping piracy in the country. Unfortunately, it will bring problems that can dramatically affect people who use the internet.
The goal of the Senate bill Protect-IP is to allow the government and private corporations possess powers to block websites that are intended to infringe on copyright. The result is that if you live in the U.S. when the bill turns to a law, you will be blocked from visiting these sites unless you know their IP addresses.
Another aspect explained in the bill that it’s a felony for sites such as search engines, blogs, social networking sites and forums to feature links to the content. Their funds can be cut and possibly be sued for the demand of such content removed.
In the House of Representatives, there is a similar counterpart known as the “Stop Online Piracy Act” where websites that contain infringing content are able to stay afloat if they removed such content. While each bill’s intent is to safeguard copyright, the result of it can unnecessarily ruin the internet for companies and users who might not even be aware of the situation.
Because of how these bills act towards sites that might contain content that’s infringing, there is the possibility that their existence will soon die out. This can include sites that are not made to infringe content such as YouTube, Facebook and many others.
On Nov. 16, various sites including Tumblr, Reddit and the notorious 4chan protested on their sites by censoring various parts of their sites. Known as “American Censorship Day,” this protest was intended to stand against the bills, especially Protect-IP.
Another response to it includes the “Free Bieber” campaign where Justin Bieber can be technically sent to prison for his YouTube videos before making it big.
There is also the possibility that those popular sites wont get affected but due to how vague the bills were presented, the danger is looming.
Just because of how the government is unnecessarily trying to rework the internet, it can lead to a lasting circle of people trying to find loopholes while the government gets more strict.
There is also the chance that the influence of Protect-IP and SOPA would spread to other parts of the world. The infrastructure of the internet will become less safe and the use of it will dwindle down dramatically. Should these bills pass so the entertainment industry can enjoy more profit?
Sure the best clips of the final Harry Potter film on YouTube is somewhat of a violation but will it significantly impact people from buying Blu-ray copies managed by an industry that doesn’t contribute much to the economy?
Ever since the Napster situation in the late 1990s, it has been a long fight for these corporations to destroy this copyright “issue.” They attempted so many times throughout the years but failed.
They will keep on finding loopholes to help their agenda in getting sales and the people will do the same to enjoy what they do on the internet today. With these current bills, it shows that the government and corporations still don’t deserve to enforce the internet in their vision.
Voice your opinion to your local congressman and tell them that these bills will destroy the internet.