It's a SOPA Opera

There has been a great deal of proposed legislation that would regulate various parts of the internet. The most recent being the Stop Online Piracy Act. Although the bill had been around since last month, there hadn't been much discussion about it within the tech industry or online.

The bill has received support from several Democrats, Republicans and media lobbyists but surprisingly, the internet had been quiet about it. All that has changed is that now several major web companies have voiced their opposition to the bill and have attempted to raise awareness of what this bill's passing could do to the internet world as we know it.

The bill was initially hailed as an effort to punish copyright infringement sites however the way the bill is written makes it clear that it could do more to stifle innovation and hurt companies more than it would help stop copyright infringement.

As part of the effort to inform people about the bill, websites like Tumblr have mounted protests. Mozilla and many other websites placed a “Stop Censorship” banner on their pages and Tumblr censored users dashboards in order to show what people won't be able to publish if the bill passes.

If the bill became law, it would allow copyright holders to more easily get court orders to punish those who infringe on their rights and would force sites to block the domains of any site accused of copyright infringement.

One problem that opponents of the bill have is that it takes away the assumption of innocence and the right to due process. Instead, all it takes is an allegation and a website can be shut down. The other issue they have is that the bill won't actually do much to prevent copyright infringement because the measures they take are fairly easy to get around. The problem is that the bill will provide an excellent set of tools that can be used to censor the internet in the same was that countries with more oppressive governments already do. For those who oppose this bill, they see it as a large first step toward a government controlled internet.

If you are interested in finding out more about this bill, you can read the Senate and House versions.

What do you think about the SOPA? Do you think it will do anything to stop piracy? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for TechCareersBlog and Nexxt. Along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.