SOPA Protest Day was a Success, but what’s next?
Skybox Creative was proud to be one of the San Diego website design companies that participated in the internet blackout day January 18 to protest SOPA, but we’d like to remind everyone that the issue hasn’t been resolved yet. It’s been reported that Texas Republican Lamar Smith has supposedly “killed” the Stop Online Piracy Act, a bill he sponsored, but PIPA (Protect IP Act), the Senate counterpart of SOPA, has only been tabled for a vote later on. Both bills still have some powerful lobbying efforts pushing for them, namely the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Obviously, the MPAA and RIAA have a vested interest in stopping online privacy, so why are the rest of us opposed to this legislation? Last week’s protest was about killing the bills, but it was also an effort to help others become more informed about the how and why of the whole process. No one wants to see the misuse or theft of intellectual property, but the approach used by both of these bills is an infringement on some of the basic freedoms we hold dear in this country. In fact, if you read the wording, SOPA and PIPA actually penalize American businesses for acts committed by foreign websites.
The motivating force behind SOPA and PIPA is the presence of pirated film, scripts, and music on foreign sites before they are officially released. Since the US government doesn’t have any jurisdiction over the countries these sites are based in, the proposal is that any US sites linking to them should be court-ordered to remove those links – within five days of receiving the order from the attorney general. Who’s opposed to that? Google, Facebook, eBay and PayPal are four of the major names speaking out against it, and the primary organizers in last week’s blackout.
SOPA also included language that targeted “harmful” products such as foreign pharmaceuticals, but didn’t have any guidelines or regulatory agency responsibility for determining what was considered “harmful” and why. It would also give US companies the option of shutting off sites like WikiLeaks, a move that reeks of censorship and a dangerous precedent towards limiting the free speech we all hold dear. While some may feel that Julian Assange is an irresponsible journalist, if we cut him off, where does the censorship stop? Are our newspapers next?
The justification being used by those who support SOPA and PIPA may seem sound on the surface – an attempt to protect intellectual property rights – but the bills themselves are a violation of the First Amendment, which protects the right to freedom of expression from government interference. They also penalize legitimate businesses here in the United States for the actions of others in foreign countries. We here at Skybox Creative are opposed to both of those. Hopefully you are too.
