Welcome to America, the Land of the Free. Well, sort of.
For many years, we’ve watched how the internet changed our lives. It has, quite a history, and its evolution is a rich and colorful one. Who can ever forget that piercing sound your dial-up modem makes in order to establish an internet connection? Who would ever think that such sound will be the gateway to a myriad of information, allowing people to learn like never before, as well as to communicate, share, and express their thoughts?
The internet has both been a friend and an ally. No one can ever deny how the internet has changed the world through technology and innovation, but there will always be loopholes that are of course, expected. Piracy became abundant over time, and the climactic removal of Napster’s services only showed us how copyright infringement has become a serious problem that needed to be dealt with. Fast forward to 2012—we find ourselves dealing with one bad cookie that aims to put an end to copyright infringement, but with a price: it threatens our freedom of speech.
SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy act for those who abhor acronyms, is a bill that recently sparked controversy and heated debates. The bill, if ever approved, will give the power to all copyright owners such as film production studios, record labels, publishing houses and the like, to file court orders against websites that violates copyright restrictions. If this court order is approved, the website found guilty of copyright infringement needs to shut down and stop its services as a whole. Think these websites can fight back once a court order is issued to them? Fat chance. Justice can easily fold down a website, even without hearing its defense.
“So wait, I should not be concerned by this whole SOPA thing because I’m only a third party company who offered to host their website, right?” Wrong. Copyright holders, under SOPA, have the access to “a private right of action”, meaning they can easily put an end to a website’s payment processors, meaning the chances of you saying goodbye to your paycheck just got quadrupled. “Private right of action” also includes all kinds of companies who are involved in a website’s production.
To give you an idea how this works, let’s make good old Youtube as an example.
Youtube, as we all know, has become more than a video-streaming channel—it has turned itself into a social media powerhouse that allows people to share their experiences and talents through videos. What if, average Joe decides to produce a home video showing himself shooting hoops with perfection? For inspiration, he decides to use R.Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly” as background music. So under SOPA, big, mean corporations such as, say A & R or Warner Music (or whatever R.Kelly’s on) have the power to file a court order against Youtube and permanently shut down the website. Worst part is, R.Kelly’s record label can also request Youtube’s credit providers to stop processing payments to the site. So in the end, it’s bad news for Youtube and its millions of users, because the website is at risk of being taken down just because of an innocent man showing off his basketball prowess.
When SOPA is approved, the internet will never be the same. Imagine a curious mind that seeks for information—only to feel defeated after Google restricts his search options because of websites being pulled out by SOPA. Since SOPA threatens internet security by keeping an eye out on EVERYTHING the internet has to offer, censorship is abound, thus limiting creativity from happening. No creativity—no innovation. A world lacking in innovation is almost as pitiful as it sounds. Plus, no one wants to live in a world where information is filtered.
The negative consequences of SOPA don’t end here—the shutting down of our beloved websites isn’t the only thing being at risk here. Think of the millions of jobs that may be axed because of this bill. The internet provides information as well as jobs. Our economy(failing, more specifically) relies heavily on the internet. E-commerce, online advertising, and promotions are all internet-driven. When SOPA focuses its evil eye on businesses whose websites become suspected of violating copyright laws, what will become of the website programmers, website designers, web content writers, and advertisers who contributed to the success of the business? The threat of SOPA makes it harder to CREATE job opportunities for people who have degrees related to the computer and technology industry(and they are a lot) as well, because companies will rather turn into old-fashioned means of doing their business in an effort to avoid lost profits.
So it seems that the only benefactors of this whole SOPA situation are the heavyweight companies and corporations who intend to monopolize people’s freedom to speech, creativity, and innovation.
Something to consider: SOPA will NEVER end piracy. If this is the sole purpose of SOPA, then it’s doomed from the get-go. Realistically speaking, piracy is a hard habit to break, and fighting it is like a person entering a match in a cage against a dozen of starved-for-10-days lions. Truth is—people will always try to(and most likely will) pirate. Trying to stop piracy through censorship and limiting the people’s rights to access websites are not solutions. It’s like piracy is that one unfamiliar, sneering person in a party—always stealthy, quick to the banquet table, then leaves before you can even say “What the—“. Battling piracy is, unfortunately—a very difficult and futile process.
SOPA, when approved, will subtly let the internet play a part in limiting knowledge and awareness for people. It’s not supposed to work this way—this is not the internet that I grew up on. Yes, that dial-up tone sure can be annoying back in the days, but at least I was able to access a gazillion of uncensored information through an internet that granted me freedom of speech. The internet as we knew it, when SOPA passes, will never be the same. And that’s a shame.
