What is SOPA? Why Social Media is Buzzing About The Proposed Legislation

It’s nearly impossible to go online without reading something about the Stop Online Piracy Act – or SOPA. The proposed bill has outraged many people and it’s why social media sites have been buzzing about the proposed legislation since it was originally introduced. But precisely what is the proposed Act and what impact would it have on America and American’s lives? As an employee of a social media agency, the proposed legislation has me worried about the future of my industry.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (HR 3261) was proposed by the Republican Congressman from Texas Lamar Smith on October 26, 2011. The stated intent of the bill is “To promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes.” Proponents of the bill are claiming that they are trying to protect copyrighted material from piracy. Detractors of the bill are asserting that the bill would violate First Amendment rights, and would be the start of an Internet censorship typically only seen in countries like China.

One of the main factors in SOPA’s creation was due to concern over cross-border online pharmaceutical drug sales. International pharmacies, especially in Canada, don’t always indicate where they are based. Google lost a $500 million judgment vs. the US Department of Justice due to this, as it was determined that Google, in permitting ads to placed for Canadian pharmacies, helped to American consumers to illegally purchase and import prescription drugs, whose quality could not be ensured.

The matter of intellectual property rights has been a hot button issue since the inception of online file sharing. Due to the Napster era, and now the multitudes of torrent sites, the MPAA is throwing its weight solidly behind SOPA. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act took aim at removing illegal/pirated content from websites. Now SOPA is after the sites themselves that host the material.

There is no doubt at all that people’s livelihoods are at stake, in both the music and movie industry. The Global Intellectual Property Center states that 19 million Americans rely on some sort of intellectual property-driven sector for their livelihood. This sector generates $7.7 trillion dollars a year. Struggling writers, garage bands, and indie filmmakers all stand to benefit from this legislation.

The argument against SOPA isn’t concentrating on those people or what the better part of the legislation is trying to do. The fight against SOPA is over privacy rights, over the data packets which an internet service provider would have to scan to determine whether or not the information that is being accessed is in violation. The argument over SOPA is about censorship, over the government blocking websites, similar to what China does with their Great Firewall of China. The piracy needs to stop but censorship isn’t the answer.

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