America is about to commit a self inflicted wound of historic proportions in the form of a massively over-reaching Internet copyright bill. Known as Protect-IP in the senate and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) in the house, the law is ostensibly designed to fight copyright infringers on the Internet. What it'll actually end up doing is crippling creative freedom and innovation on the Internet and ultimately bring China-style censorship to the Internet.
The main concern about the bill is its total disregard for the concept of 'innocent until proven guilty'. If an IP holder suspects your website contains 'infringing content' (which could be anything from honest to goodness piracy or 1st amendment protected parody) they can ask your advertising services and payment processors (like Paypal) to stop doing business with you. They can also have you stricken from search engines like Google. But the scariest part of the bill is that it can force ISPs to remove your website from the Internet entirely using DNS filtering. This type of filtering (which is used in the Great Firewall of China) isn't a targeted form of censorship: it won't just block the offending video or page. Instead, your whole website can get blocked for one infraction.
If your website relies on user generated content (like Youtube) or allows users to comment and post media (like Facebook), you can be held responsible for 'not doing enough to prevent piracy'. Your whole website could be blocked because a single user keeps posting pirated content.
Problems like these already happen on a smaller scale due to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, but this law would open the flood gates to abusive claims of copyright infringement. The next Youtube or Facebook would never even get a chance on an Internet like the one this law envisions.
Copyright isn't the only possible ramification of this law. Because the law also applies to those who simply 'facilitate' piracy, like the anonymity software Tor, the law could also threaten human rights. Software like Tor already helped countless rebels in the Arab Spring hide their communications from oppressive governments. Sure, it probably helps a few pirates too. The question becomes, would hurting a few pirates really be enough justification to take such an important tool away from those who fight against totalitarian oppression?
The tables are stacked in favor of the bill passing, but some very influential and important technology and Internet companies are fighting hard to prevent its passage. Already more members of congress are souring on the bill, but the fight to save the Internet is far from over. You can help by letting your congressional representatives know you're against this bill. The Internet's future may depend on it.
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