STOP SOPA--Keep the Internet Free and Open
Don't let government censor the Internet to protect Big Hollywood
Hollywood bigwigs (MPAA, RIAA) who cannot keep up with online innovation have spent millions lobbying members of Congress to enact China-like censorship standards to protect their products. While online piracy is a concern, the pieces of legislation now being considered, namely a bill called Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), would effectively shut down the Internet. Not only would it impose burdensome standards on programmers, but it would permit the Justice Department to take action against any website that suspected of using copyrighted material. This would include links in a comment section to unlicensed material. It would be difficult for any social networking-type or user-generated content type website (Wikipedia, YouTube, Reddit) to survive in this kind of draconian environment. There are already processes in place for website managers to be contacted if/when material is being misused that works well. If the proponents of this bill truly want to stop online piracy, they should target the foreign spammers who are guilty of the worst offenses--not the vibrant and innovative websites, programmers, and content managers who are ushering in a new era of information sharing.
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