I decided to write a blog post summarising the recent events surrounding the SOPA and PIPA Bills that are being debated in the USA. Not sure what these are? Watch this video by NewLeftMedia to bring you up to speed.

The bills originated via the MPAA and RIAA - motion picture and recording industry associations - who lobbied them to the House (SOPA) and the Senate (PIPA), respectively. These organisations claim that copyright infringement costs them millions of Dollars in revenue, but their draconian bills would have a far more grave effect on the Internet and how we know it today. The Stop Online Piracy Act might sound like it’s rather basic, but should it be passed into law it would be comparable to you being accountable for a murder that someone else committed on your property (Source).

A Webwide Blackout

On Wednesday, many sites across the Web “went dark” in order to protest SOPA. Popular Science has put together a post with some screenshots highlighting the major sites that participated in the blackout, which included, amongst others, heavyweights such as Wikipedia, Reddit and WordPress. Even Google and Facebook openly stated their opposition to the bills.

Under much pressure and much public outcry, the Obama administration eventually threatened to veto the bills should they go through the House and Senate and end up on the president’s desk, calling them a threat to “and open and innovative Internet”.

However, the House is intent on getting this bill passed and is resuming markup on it in February. Furthermore, the MPAA stated that they would withdraw any support for the Obama administration should it not change its mind (Hollywood donated a lot of money during his campaign, but hey, so did Google – over $800,000 to be precise).

Breaking (and entering) news

Our PR Guru, Eshmael, was worried that this post might be a little outdated by today, but I’m glad I waited for this breaking news.

Last night Federal Prosecutors raided the Hong Kong-based (!) file-hosting service MegaUpload.com’s offices in the United States and New Zealand. The service is accused of costing copyright holders over $500 million in revenue. Remember, that this was done without SOPA and PIPA even being in place! These actions beg the question: is this the Obama administration showing the studios they will still take care of them, even if their bills do not get passed?!  Politics at its best, I’d say…

A short time later, hackers associated with the online collective “Anonymous” shut down sites for the Department of Justice, Universal Music Group and the RIAA. Anonymous operative, Barrett Brown told RT on Thursday “It was in retaliation for Megaupload, as was the concurrent attack on Justice.org”.

What now?

It’s crunch time for the Internet right now and it’s been proven that mass-action can make a difference. The net is a collective, the majority, the 99% - it is up to us to question the laws that govern our society, otherwise big business - institutions with enough money to create organisations that lobby to government - will continue to try purchase laws that suit their business models (ironically, the movie studios themselves once were pirates… Thanks, Ben). 

Take a look at this video, which talks about ACTA, “a proposed plurilateral agreement for the purpose of establishing international standards on intellectual property rights enforcement.” This thing goes so far that it could even get generic medicines banned (Hello, big business pharmaceutical companies). In my mind, this could be fatal for a country like South Africa.

It’s up to us, the people, to educate ourselves, know what our governments are doing and challenge them on decisions that affect us – especially the ones that don’t benefit our society. 

As Reddit so neatly points out: “under SOPA, you could get 5 years for uploading a Michael Jackson song, one year more than the doctor who killed him…”

Makes you think, doesn’t it?

Check out these cool visuals all relevant to SOPA/PIPA: