A few websites have censored themselves dramatically over the past few weeks, to raise awareness about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA,) a bill currently in the US House of Representatives. SOPA, while perhaps noble in it's simple name, is a very broad set of rules that govern the internet. In a nutshell, it grants the US greater and wider power over policing copyright infringement and counterfeit goods. It allows for the government to order ISPs to ban access to sites, foreign or domestic, they deem as infringing, or offensive. And while processing these allegations and infringements, it provides immunity to the ad and payment networks involved. They'll stop the site from accepting payments on copyrighted goods, but any money made from ads or transactions, can stay with their respective companies.
Not surprisingly, the biggest backers of the bill are gigantic entertainment names, like the MPAA, RIAA, Viacom, Nike, and others. Those against, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Yahoo!, AOL, eBay, and others are among the most vital names in technology. The legislation is currently worded very broadly, which opponents say needs to be more precisely defined in order to be effective. In it's current state, it dangerously impacts free speech by it's vague description.
Opposing SOPA isn't favoring online piracy. Yes, content creators should be paid for their work and intellectual properties have rights and need protections. Yes, illegal downloading, and knowlingly selling counterfeit goods is wrong. The issue with it is that in some ways, it's creating a McCarthy-esque blacklist of the Internet. And if you ask me, the Internet, while still very young and free, is too far gone to be this strictly governed. There have become expectations and an understanding of how it works. Trying to lock it down (for example, structuring it like cable television,) wouldn't work, and eventually there would be workarounds. People work incredibly hard to jailbreak each Apple device that comes out, just because they can. Imagine how hard they'll work to get past this if the internet becomes severely limited.
You can read more about both sides of the argument here, and there are easy to contact your representative to show either your support or opposition. PRO TIP: You don't want to support this.
