Why Hibe opposes SOPA, and why you should too

Piracy is a big problem on the Internet. For years now artists, governments and corporations have been trying to find a way to prevent the widespread distribution of illegal or illegitimate files. The Stop Online Privacy Act (or SOPA) is the United States' latest attempt to prevent these kinds of activities online and end piracy once and for all. There's only one problem: it will kill the Internet as we know it.

SOPA poses a much larger threat to the health of the internet and would undo our work in building a service that respects the choices of our users.

What Is SOPA?
SOPA gives the Department of Justice, as well as "Content Owners" the power to shut down any site that is thought to be hosting or distributing illegal content without the standard due process of law. For example, if Warner Brothers thought a site was distributing an illegal copy of one of its movies, they would be able to request that entire site be shut down, and it would be without having to go through the court system. SOPA also makes streaming copyrighted material a crime.

What is the problem?
There are a few key phrases from the above description of the act that are important to highlight; the first being "Content Owners" which for the most part are large media corporations. These corporations are part of organizations such as the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and RIAA (Recording Industry of America), who are lobbying strongly for SOPA to be pushed through in its current form. These groups are looking to protect the content that falls under their copyright, which is a standard business practice. However if SOPA were to pass it would damage the internet as a whole.

Freedom of Speech
Proponents of SOPA argue that piracy has very little to do with freedom of speech, but because there is very little oversight, abuses of SOPA could be numerous. For example, any person speaking out about the MPAA, or even the US government could have their site removed under the pretenses of SOPA without any illegal content present on the site whatsoever. Site owners have the ability to appeal, but in many cases the damage could already have been done. A right isn't something to be taken away and then appealed for- it is something inalienable that should not be taken away on a whim.

Content Online
Imagine the effect of SOPA when an entire site could be brought down because of one piece of "infringing" content was found present. Even if 99% of content was completely legal, what if a single image, video or piece of text was added that did not conform to the rules and the entire site was blocked? These are the kind of dangers with SOPA and it kills any site that encourages user generated content or contribution. Gone would be the days of collaborative creativity and artistic communities- because if SOPA passes one wrong upload could bring the entire site down.

Remember Internet Startups?
Currently, the Internet is a digital frontier where sites like Vimeo, Grooveshark, and Twitter can arrive and completely revolutionize a certain aspect of the web. With SOPA, it will be extremely hard for emerging companies to change things in the way YouTube did since they would always have the risk of a complete shutdown that could be caused by one transgression.

Government of the people, by the people, for the people
Is SOPA something Americans really are asking for? Is it representative of American ideals of freedom of speech, equality, an opportunity for all? Judging by the reaction of citizens all over the net, it is in fact very much the opposite. Since the proposal of SOPA, a grassroots movement against the act has begun to spread.Reddit.com and Wikipedia have shut down their service in protest today, with Google taking a similar action and changing their home page.

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SOPA is before congress because of lobbyists and special interest groups. This is a reality of the American political system that we cannot change. Since many members of congress don't fully understand the technology and culture behind the internet, we encourage them to heed the counsel of industry experts as they did with Facebook and Google, as well as the voice of the American people reacting against this bill.

Consequences
SOPA would turn the Internet into a McCarthy-era atmosphere. One where all it would take to bring a competing web site down would be to accuse them of piracy. If Youtube's biggest competitor is Vimeo, imagine if all it would take to bring Vimeo down is for a few illegitimate files to be found on their site.

SOPA (now PIPA in the Senate) was written by US media companies looking out for their interests, then lobbied to congress members who often don't understand the technology of the Internet. SOPA will break down the openness of the Internet and kill the flourishing and creative ecosystem we now have. Sites will be taken down without any due process and with very little oversight. In short, the content owners will have the power to decide what content is allowed on the web or not, and even shutdown website on a whim. This will create chaos on the web and will be the begining of the end of online sharing.

How to oppose?
Stop American Censorship allows you to get email updates to fight SOPA/PIPA at local town hall meetings as well as write an email to congress.

Get informed at the Electronic Frontier Foundation about SOPA and its consequences.