SOPA / PIPA 101 for newbies -via Gigaom

If you have just clued into the hotly raging debate over the Stop Online Piracy Act or the Protect Intellectual Property Act, thanks to a variety of popular sites replacing their content with anti-SOPA/PIPA messages, your first reflex may to be shout, “I love the Internet, thus I hate SOPA and PIPA.” But there’s plenty more to learn about these complex and controversial bills. Here’s your quick guide to the proposed pieces of legislation and a one-stop shop to resources that can help you learn more.

What are SOPA and PIPA in general?

SOPA stands for the Stop Online Piracy Act, which was introduced in the House in October, and sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith. A copy of it can be found here. PIPA is the Senate version of the same bill, which was sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and others, some of whom have begun distancing themselves from the legislation. The bills aim to halt the spread of pirated content on the web by several means, which originally included taking the names of offending sites from the DNS directory — the address book for the Internet. So far, SOPA sponsor Rep. Smith said he would remove the DNS provisions from the bill, while PIPA sponsor Leahy said he would hold hearings on the issue. The bills also seek to force payments processors to halt money flowing to pages that host potentially pirated content. More detailed information can be found here.

Why is everyone so upset?

While the stated intent behind SOPA is to halt the spread of pirated goods and content from bad actors, the way the bills are written the punishments associated don’t match the crimes. Having pirated content appear on a site, even without the knowledge or action by the site’s owner, can lead to a site being shut down without the owner having a chance to defend itself. It also threatens content hosting sites by cutting off their money flow if they are deemed to be hosting an infringer, until they can otherwise prove they are exempt from the infringement claims. Basically it turns the American idea of innocent until proven guilty to guilty until proven innocent. For more takes on this see a publisher’s commentsa venture capitalist’s and a cloud entrepreneur’s take.

What is the argument for these bills?

The argument made by those in support of the bills is that intellectual property theft is out of hand and is expedited by the web. Current controls such as the Digital Millenium Copyright Act do not offer a big enough stick to stop bad actors from sharing and spreading priated content and goods. Additionally there is an argument that counterfeiting goods not only results in losses to their original manufacturer, but in the case of food, drugs and even watches, can cause potential harm or inconvenience to the buyer if they are unaware of the subterfuge. Finally, there is an argument that the web is freaking out over the bills for no reason.

Where can I learn more?

For discussions of SOPA, check out this article from my colleague Mathew Ingram, this one offering a historical perspective from Ars Technica, or this fact sheet from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. You could also read the bill.
For the information on PIPA, read this article, this Reddit analysis, or the bill itself.

SOPAr away…

If you’re still living under a rock, while using the internet for all your daily interactions,

PLEASE PLEASE READ THIS..
SOPA, PIPA are, quite simply, efforts by the big media content firms, who show no sense of remorse when gouging consumers the world over, using the ruse that they provide artists a safe return on their works, to continue with their doomed business model. These laws will have the intended? consequence that they will destroy the internet as you use it now.

More heavy-handed US tactics..

US economic threat to Spain 


The information that Wikileaks leaked shed more light on the corruption behind the “security” facade, & probably is the reason for the vendetta sought against Assange.. lock him up in the hope no others will follow his lead.. 


In a leaked letter sent to Spain’s outgoing President, the US ambassador to the country warned that as punishment for not passing a SOPA-style file-sharing site blocking law, Spain risked being put on a United States trade blacklist . Inclusion would have left Spain open to a range of “retaliatory options” but already the US was working with the incoming government to reach its goals.