SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!!
Mark Matheny
January 17, 2012

There are concerns that the Internet may be shut down on January 23, due to the SOPA bill. Is there a need to worry?

An article posted 5 days ago on Buzzfeed states:

Congress is about to vote on the Stop Online Piracy Act, which could give the government power to shut down any website with copyrighted content. Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Amazon are considering a day of blackout to protest the “Stop Online Piracy Act” or SOPA

First off, let's look at SOPA. It stands for Stop Online Piracy Act.

This Bill is also known as HR 3261, and was introduced back on October 26, 2011 by House Judiciary Committee Chair Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) and a bipartisan group of 12 initial co-sponsors.
The bill itself states in the introduction that its purpose is: 

To promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes.

 According to an article at PC World,

The bill, called SOPA, would allow the U.S. Department of Justice and copyright holders to seek court orders requiring online advertising networks, payment processors and other organizations to stop payments to websites and Web-based services accused of copyright infringement.

Proponents of the Bill argue that they are simply trying to protect the intellectual  property market  and corresponding industry, jobs and revenue, and this bill is necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws, especially against foreign websites.


According to the Washington Post, this bill would protect artists' intellectual property, and basically make it harder for internet users to download free versions of their content, by directing users to purchase the content instead. The article shows that among those supporting the bill are powerful groups of lobbyists  including the Motion Picture Association of America, pharmaceuticals makers, media firms and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.


However, as they say, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. And there are plenty of groups and individuals who are in opposition to this bill. Among those groups opposing is a group called NetCoalition,  a group that represents Web firms and various public interest groups who opposed to the law.


The Director of NetCoalition, Markham C. Erickson stated, "Inexplicably, and almost overnight, SOPA has morphed into a full-on assault against lawful U.S. Internet companies." Other opponents of the Bill argue that this bill could put severe restrictions on blogsites and other alternative websites, as well as You Tube account users. "The intention is not the same as China’s Great Firewall, a nationwide system of Web censorship, but the practical effect could be similar", stated Journalist Rebecca MacKinnon, who formerly worked for CNN, and is now a blogger and co-founder ofGlobal Voices Online. 


The other concern is that search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Twitter for example may block sites which are deemed to be "offensive". 


According to Electronic Frontier Foundation, under this bill:

.. service providers (including hosting services) would be under new pressure to monitor and police their users’ activities.  Websites that simply don’t do enough to police infringement (and it is not at all clear what would qualify as “enough”) are now under threat, even though the DMCA expressly does not require affirmative policing.  It creates new enforcement tools against folks who dare to help users access sites that may have been “blacklisted,” even without any kind of court hearing. The bill also requires that search engines, payment providers (such as credit card companies and PayPal), and advertising services join in the fun in shutting down entire websites.  In fact, the bill seems mainly aimed at creating an end-run around the DMCA safe harbors. Instead of complying with the DMCA, a copyright owner may now be able to use these new provisions to effectively shut down a site by cutting off access to its domain name, its search engine hits, its ads, and its other financing even if the safe harbors would apply. 

Recently Presidential Candidate Ron Paul condemned SOPA during a speech while out campaigning:

" Freedom really has been tested over such a short period, when you look at six thousand years of human history. Most of history has been tyrants, dictators and kings and pharaohs and... governments telling people how to live. So we have this wonderful test and the greatest prosperity, and we're losing it.
This is why I fear the economic crisis coming, this is why I fear this endless militancy overseas, this is why I fear the underminig of the protection of our rights here at home. There's a bill now... the Stop Online Piracy Act. They want to takeover the Internet! I mean can you imagine how...much we're going to be curtailed in the spreading of our information if we lose the internet? But there's a bill ... that's supposedly going to stop privacy, but actually what it's going to do is take over the internet, and be able to... restrict everybody in what they do, and monitor everything we do on the internet."

Infowars Nightly News has also reported on the unconstitutionality of this bill:




According to Buzzfeed  there have been calls for a day of "Blackout", and among those Companies considering this are Google, Face Book, Yahoo, and Amazon. "Anonomous" has called for a day of blackout as well in a You Tube video, as well as providing flyers that can be passed out and hung.

It appears however, that recently that the SOPA bill has been given a threat of Veto by the White House administration according to SHTF plan.com. The article states in part:

Though the administration did issue a formal veto threat, the White House’s opposition signaled the end of these bills, at least in their current form.A few hours later, Congress shelved SOPA, putting off action on the bill indefinitely.

So at least for now it would appear that the bill is dead in the water, but- It is important to remember that Obama said he would Veto the NDAA bill when it was in his hands as well and later changed his mind. Can we really trust the Administration when they say they will Veto this bill?

It is not apparent whether the Black out scheduled for January 23, 2012 will happen, but one thing is sure - SOPA may be on the shelf for now, but I believe it is not the last we will hear of it.