Anti-SOPA protests battle American censorship

Many of your favorite websites are blacked out today. In what is perhaps the first coordinated, large-scale protest of the Internet Age, web titans such as Wikipedia, Reddit and Boing Boing went dark. The I Can Haz Cheezeburger ring of humor websites similarly went offline. WordPress allowed smaller sites an easy way to go dark for the day. The reason? Opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

The two acts attempt to put the lid on a phenomenon almost synonymous with the Internet: piracy. While laws outlawing online piracy are already in effect, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have sought sterner measures. Rather than a right-left debate, the debate over SOPA and PIPA is largely about old media vs. new media -- nearly all groups supporting the bills are old media companies and their industry arms and nearly all opponents are in new media.

While the Digital Millennium Copyright Act forces websites like YouTube to remove content after complaints from copyright holders, SOPA / PIPA forces removal of the entire website hosting the content. The Electronic Freedom Foundation has cautioned that Etsy, Vimeo and Flickr will likely go completely offline if the bill passes. Many web hosting and cloud computing services would move offshore, taking jobs with them. The greatest chilling effect moves the locus of responsibility from copyright holders to websites. No longer will copyright holders have to lodge a complaint about IP. Rather, content hosts would be required to inspect every piece of content posted online, potentially grinding the Internet to a halt.

Many have compared this bill to America’s own “Great Firewall of China.” In an Op-Ed piece for The New York Times Rebecca MacKinnon argued that “The intention is not the same as China’s Great Firewall, a nationwide system of Web censorship, but the practical effect could be similar." As the Internet has long been considered one of the last bastions of free speech for all, Internet denizens are rightly concerned about the impact of this bill.

For its part, the White House threw cold water on the bill last week. However, the White House objected only to specific provisions of the bill. While some Obama administration supporters and SOPA / PIPA opponents lauded the decision, it’s important to remember that the same president recently signed the National Defense Authorization Act after similarly speaking against the legislation, even expressing “serious reservations” while signing the bill. Much like White House opposition to the NDAA, President Obama spoke not of killing SOPA / PIPA, but amending the bill while keeping much of the same intent intact.

While online piracy is a legitimate problem, taking revenues away from content creators and killing media jobs, SOPA / PIPA does little to actually combat the real issue. Rather, the bill seems more like a protectionist effort on the part of the MPAA and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Both trade organizations represent industries who have been dragged kicking and screaming into the digital age. Rather than adapt themselves to new technologies, the industries have a long track record of trying to suppress the free flow of information.

Perhaps most troubling, the bills also ban attempts to circumvent website blocks and take downs. While it’s no surprise that a bill would make efforts against attempts to undermine it, the bills in question specifically attack technologies used by dissidents in places like Iran and China. SOPA / PIPA might actually and legitimately be the bill that moves the United States qualitatively closer to such authoritarian regimes than not.