Wikipedia, Reddit, Google, WordPress, Mozilla, Facebook, Kaspersky, Tumblr, Twitter, Yahoo, and as much as 7000 websites expressed their dismay today at the SOPA (Stop Online Privacy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) legislations by blocking out, to varying degrees, content from their websites.

SOPA was conceived to protect ‘Big Media’ and the entertainment industry, record labels, movie studios and TV networks, from intellectual property theft. However the legislation spurred a major backlash from a large number of websites, pundits and associations.

What is SOPA?

In short, SOPA, along with the Protect IP act, grants the US government the right to restrict sites that seem to infringe on intellectual property by:

·         Forcing ISPs to block access to infringing foreign sites.
·         Forcing search providers to make infringing sites undiscoverable.
·         Forcing payments processors to shut down the ability for infringing sites to make money.
·         Forcing advertisers to cease doing business with an infringing site.

Potential for abuse - the “Vigilante” provision

The most worrisome part of SOPA lies in the process around banning sites, more specifically the “vigilante” provision, which would grant broad immunity to all service providers if they over block innocent users or sites.   

According to Brian Barrett from Gizmodo, “the most galling thing about SOPA in its original construction is that it let IP owners take these actions without a single court appearance or judicial sign-off. All it required was a single letter claiming a "good faith belief" that the target site has infringed on its content (...) Payment processors or content providers like Visa or YouTube don't even need a letter shut off a site's resources. The bill's "vigilante" provision gives broad immunity to any provider who proactively shutters sites it considers to be infringers.”

They brought this mess on themselves

Another argument raised against SOPA blames the movie studios, record companies, publishing houses, broadcast networks for the piracy mess. In an article on GigaOM, Jason Hoffman, CTO and founder of Joyent, a hosting provider, laid the blame of the media producers and distributors for the theft of intellectual property.

“Had these SOPA supporters made their content available easily and affordably, they’d have no problem selling it (…) In short, these issues have nothing to do with piracy and everything to do with product distribution and pricing.”

What is your view on the SOPA legislation? Do you think the piracy protection act should be implemented? Share your opinion in the poll and leave your thoughts in the comments section below.