Monday, February 27, 2012

SOPA and PIPA


          Two anti-piracy bills trying to get passed right now are the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) which are to strengthen protections against copyright infringement and intellectual property theft. Many internet companies like Wikipedia, Reddit, Boing Boing, Mozilla, WordPress, TwitPic, MoveOn.org and the ICanHasCheezBurger network are participating in an internet blackout to protest the bills. Facebook and Twitter are also against the bills but are not participating in the internet blackout.
          The music and film industries are for these bills to pass. There are laws that already protect against copyright like Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), but SOPA and PIPA will target the platform -- that is, the site hosting the unauthorized content. These bills would give the Justice Department power to cut off ties with US internet service providers and the foreign internet companies. This could stop foreign countries from selling stolen or counterfeit goods to the US. Content groups argue that innovation and jobs in content-creating industries are threatened by growing Internet piracy.
          I think that if these bills are passed, that they could help the US stop a lot of people from using the internet for illegal activity. I would definitely support this bill to get it passed, it would have its pros and cons but if its pros out ways the cons, which I think they do, then it would benefit most of the US.

3 comments:

  1. Randy,
    Good job on your post. You describe the issue and the complexities of it well. Too many stealing copyrighted material using the Internet for too long. Not sure if SOPA and PIPA will help with this difficult issue, or go too far in limiting content on the Web.

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  2. Well, I can see why you want the laws to pass. It is smart to limit the internet so it will benefit the USA. We do need more jobs in this country. But, if the laws pass, that could wipe out a lot of website. People are paid to work on the websites that would be shut down. So if they pass the laws people will be out of a job. So either way I think the economy will still be hurting in the long end of this deal. I totally agree that we need to make the internet safer. Just not to the point when people have to leave their jobs to do so. So either way there are going to be some mad people. If the laws pass, the websites will be shut down and people are out of a job. They dont pass, the big companies that want this to pass will keep on trying to limit the internet.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, but if there is no internet then people will actually go out and do stuff, and with all the people starting to go outside. New businesses would be in demand and jobs for those businesses would be need and would probably put more money and jobs into the economy then the people who work on all the internet websites.

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