NWR: SOPA/PIPA

zulamay · January 2012

So I'm curious...

How many of you have at least noticed today that there are websites shut down due to SOPA/PIPA? And I'm not talking about Pippa Middleton.

It's a big deal in my industry that this bill not pass, but I'm curious to know if anyone really cares or not.

emarston1 · January 2012

I've heard about it but I didn't quite understand what it was. But I've noticed google and I heard wikipedia is down for the day. I know a bunch of people have changed their facebook photos and TK profile pictures. It is kinda freaky but I guess I don't get how they can regulate the internet. It's worldwide, ya know? But admittedly I know nothing about it.

Thumper1148 · January 2012

Actually the goverement could regulate it if they decided to. They would require your internet providers to block websites that are owned in foreign contries that link back to photos or anything that is copyrighted. And if they didn't your internet provider would be finded or shut down. Basically many websites that are not pirating actual copyright property would be shut down or blocked for showing copyright imagery that does not belong to them.

Example: The Knot (say it's not a US run company) would no longer be able to show images of dresses that belong to other copyright holders (unless they got written premission from the designer of the dress).

It is possible for this to happen. China currently sensors the internet in their country. So internet sensoring can happen.

The bill has huge holes in it and depending on how it could be interpreted/enforced, even youtube videos of a child singing a copyrighted song could be considered a minor infraction under this bill.

Meegles4 · January 2012

Working in publishing, I have very mixed feelings on the subject. Copyright infringement is a serious issue and I spend a decent amount of time making sure my authors don't plagiarize, and that they're not a victim of plagiarizing.

It's been hard for me not to find bias in all of this. I find it ironic that as part of the SOPA outcries, I saw a quote from Google's CEO about how seriously he takes copyright infringement, but that SOPA doesn't stop it -- yet his company has been the defendent in major lawsuits FOR infringing on people's copyrights. Sure, we can blame the entertainment, music and publishing industry for trying to watch their backs, but Google isn't God. Therefore, I don't TOTALLY trust the outcries by Google and other Internet companies. That being said, I'd like to hope that we can protect a person's copyright without "breaking the Internet" and from the examples I've heard, it sounds as though SOPA goes a bit far. But, I feel like a lot of it has been generated by Internet companies and others who have a dog in the fight, and as I said, I don't totally trust all that.

It's a tough issue that's been boiled down to "it's breaking the internet! It's censorship!" when the real truth is that this issue is about protecting people's ideas. There are copyright laws and precedent in place, but they're being challenged every day and as we live in the digital age, there are questions that precedent hasn't addressed. I fault everyone involved for not focusing more on that...and for villainizing people who do make their livelihoods off of their original content by saying they're just out for profits. Well, wouldn't you be if that was how you paid your bills?!