Originally I was going to post about a different subject, but I decided that the internet has a higher priority. This is going to come in parts, so brace yourselves.
Before I even begin my talk, I'm not about to tell you that SOPA is the worst idea ever and the world will end if it passes. I'm also not going to tell you that it's a good idea. Fact is, it's neither. It just needs editing. A lot. While it does make things easier to explain, most things are not black and white. Especially when it comes to politics.
First of all, what are PIPA and SOPA?
The Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Acts (SOPA) were introduced to Congress on October 26,2011. Since then, many people, mostly users of the Internet have been pretty enraged with the idea of SOPA. I'm going to do my best to sum up what the current bill is proposing as of today. You can read the official text here.
First, the bill discusses "foreign infringing sites". This is a site that sells "infringing products" like music and movies without authorization; this also includes knock off products of clothing and medicines. The bill basically defines a foreign infringing site as a website run, or partially run, somewhere in the US or a site used by US users.
Basically, the bill says that a website can be sued for being an infringing site. After this the court will rule and order some sort of restraining order or injunction - causing the domain name or portion of the domain name to "cease and desist".
After the court order is issued, the service provider in question must take action to "prevent access by its subscribers located within the United States to the foreign infringing site (or portion thereof)". Search engines (such as Google) must prevent direct hypertext links to the infringing sites. Payment network providers (PayPal) must prevent, prohibit, or suspend transactions involving customers in the US with the infringing site in question. And Internet Advertising Services that knowingly advertise with the infringing site must cease ads and stop any affiliation with the site. This all has to happen within 5 days and if they do not comply within the given time, the company must present information showing how it was not feasibly possible for them to comply within the given time.
Then it moves on to sites "dedicated to the theft of US property", or in simpler terms, pirating sites. It's very similar to what infringing sites must do, and payment network providers and advertising services must cease affiliation with the site, but says nothing about search engines.
All in all, not so bad, right? Just stopping pirating and selling of fake goods.
Well, it then gets into the part that everyone is up in arms about. This section is all about the streaming of copyrighted law. And I'm not going to lie, I got a bit angry just reading this section. The bill starts by discussing who can be accused of criminal infringement. The first and second things listed are about if you're doing it for commercial gain, and if you give away enough that it equals at least $2,500 worth of product, etc. (If you don't know, bills aren't the most riveting things to read.) Then it says this:
"Any person who willfully infringes a copyright shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, if the infringement was committed by the distribution or public performance of a work being prepared for commercial dissemination, by making it available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if such person knew or should have known that the work was intended for commercial dissemination."
Basically, if you upload a video of a public performance of a work being prepared to be sold and paid for to view, listen to, etc. you have committed a criminal act. The amendment then says it has to be viewed 10 times or more for this to apply.
Then comes the punishment for uploading said video, which is already a law, this is just now amended to include uploaded videos.
So, let's say you upload a video to YouTube with someone's song in the background, or you singing their song, or something like that, and you get in trouble with the government because the government found your video or the original artist wanted to sue. You would get fined and up to 3 years in prison.
Then, if it was discovered that you did it for personal gain monetarily (you started selling the cover on iTunes) you would get fined, and up to 5 years in prison.
Then, after you got out of prison, you decided to upload another video, you would get fined and up to 6 years.
AND THEN, because for some reason you want to go to prison again or something, I don't know why, you would get up to 10 years. And fined again.
That's a grand total of 3 uploaded videos minimum and up to 19 years maximum.
This last part all about uploading copyrighted content is what's got everyone up in arms and protesting. Granted, there are people who still want their pirated movies and such, but mostly, it's the uploading content and shutting down websites because of user uploaded content.
And in case you're wondering, this is where I got all my information:
Bill Text
Business Center on PC World Article
Cornell Law Information Institute
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