Perspective on SOPA & PIPA
SOPA and PIPA. The two ugly step-sisters of our dear friend Internet Freedom. They have caused a ruckus in Capitol Hill, and throughout the country over recent months, and earlier today, were put into timeout.
The Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act were both gloriously postponed early Friday. Senate majority leader and bill proponent Harry Reid called off a scheduled vote for these two bills, after weeks of staunch opposition from online enterprises and concerned citizens.
While people are happy, and rightfully so that this bill has been halted, there is no question that some of the issues outlined in the bills are immediate problems.
Internet piracy is a rampant, and measures need to be taken to curb it. The Hollywood executives that propelled these bills into the spotlight simply wanted to stop the malicious downloading of copyrighted material, and with good reason. Offshore Internet companies have been milking music, movie, and book content for all they’re worth, illegally acquiring online material with no end in sight.
But theses high-level copyright protectors in Hollywood and in the Senate were essentially caught up in the spotlight. They went for it all, with SOPA and PIPA, and seriously overstepped their boundaries. The implementation of these bills would have meant certain demise for countless online publications, because of massive blacklists and government censorship.
The main question this entire fiasco has brought up is: curbing illegal Internet activity is well and good, but at what price?
The price attached to SOPA and PIPA would be entirely too expensive.
Internet creativity and freedom of expression, as highlighted by Facebook, Wikipedia, Reddit, and other online SOPA protestors, is essential.
Peaceful Internet protest has shown, with the postponement of these bills, that social change is attainable. Without full rights to create content and share it with the world, people wouldn’t have the ability to unite, and create monumental social change.
Sometimes what people choose to put on the Internet is bizarre and irrelevant, but when we find the few nuggets of intelligence, it would be a shame if people could not view them, and decide for themselves.
Everybody has a story, and everybody has something to give. And if SOPA and PIPA are passed, people may not get the chance to share what they have, and opportunities for change may never come to fruition.
So for now, there is still a problem with piracy and copyright infringement, but SOPA and PIPA are obviously not the solution.
Freedom is what this country is based on, and what we as people deserve, so keep posting and linking. You never know, what you have to offer might just do some good.
