Companies Fear SOPA Gives Government Power To Censor The Web
Bill Would Help Block Piracy, But At What Price?
The digital world has many benefits, and most of us couldn’t imagine life without its many treasures. Perhaps most significantly, the advent of the Internet has combined with the media digitization – from music to movies – to complete change the way we consumers get our hands on information and entertainment. But while music and film digitization has made it easier to consume content from sources like iTunes, Hulu, and Netflix, it has also opened up a new world of online piracy – a business of bootlegged content that hurts not just the film and record industries, but the entire economy.
And now, the House of Representatives committee is preparing to debate a bill of great significance to many industries, including the movie business, the record industry, the television industry, content providers such as Netflix and cable/satellite providers, and internet services from Google to iTunes. The bill in question is called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Basically, the bill would empower the U.S. Attorney General to take action against websites (even those based outside of the United States) that host the illegal streaming and downloading of copyrighted intellectual property, such as music, movies, and TV shows. SOPA and a similar bill called Protect IP are being supported by the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, Netflix, and many other movers and shakers in these industries.
But critics of the Stop Online Piracy Act, which include well-known web companies such as Facebook, Google, Ebay, PayPal, AOL, and Wikipedia, say that the bill gives law enforcement authorities the power to censor the World Wide Web to a startling degree, without a trial or proof of wrong-doing – thus threatening free speech and the rights of due process. Microsoft and Verizon have recently expressed their own concerns about the bill, though criticism from such major businesses has not prevented the development of considerable bipartisan support in the legislature.
In an open letter to Congress, these high-profile SOPA critics said that the proposed legislation would have a “chilling effect on innovation,” and went as far as to compare the bill to censorship techniques used in China, Iran, and other totalitarian governments. The technology community fears that, under the bill, the government would have the power to shut down websites like Google and Yahoo!, and payment processors like PayPal, simply because they may serve or link to sites that are in violation of the terms of the law. The threat of censorship is not to be taken lightly, but the supporters of SOPA aren’t concerned that such a legislation would lead to a “big-brother” society. First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams summed up his feelings on the subject in a column in the Washington Post, saying, “Chinese dissidents do not yearn for freedom in order to download pirated movies.”
As music and film digitization continues to push physical media into obsolescence, enforcing legal downloading will be crucial to our economy. It is clear to everyone that some measures must be taken to inhibit piracy, but it remains unclear how best to do so. At press time, SOPA had just been modified so that it no longer includes a provision that would require internet service providers to block access to overseas Web sites that have been accused of (though not convicted of) piracy.
Tags: film digitization