Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) the Act against Internet piracy

In the middle of December, 2011 the House of Representatives of the U. S. Congress will take vote concerning adoption of the new bill Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA, the Law against Internet piracy).

In case of acceptance of SOPA, U.S. authorities will acquire the right to require from Internet service providers to block access to all websites with piracy materials.

Who lobbies the law

This bill is supported by the American associations of RIAA and MPAA media companies. According to their statement, adoption of new laws on fight against piracy in Network is just necessary for protection of owners against theft of their content.

Who against the law

SOPA are actively opposed by many Internet companies, such as:

• Google,
• Facebook,
• Yahoo,
• Twitter,
• "Kaspersky (earlier Kaspersky Lab)",
• Mozilla,
• eBay,
• LinkedIn,
• AOL,
• Zynga and others.

According to representatives of the Internet companies, in case of acceptance of SOPA, U.S. authorities will receive excessively a lot of power in relation to websites which accuse of placement at themselves pirated content.

One of the most active fighters against acceptance of SOPA is the founder of the world's largest online encyclopedia Wikipedia Jimmy Wales (Jimmy Wales). In December, 2011 he said that he is going to make all Wikipedia pages empty as a protest action against SOPA.

Recently Wales announced the plans on own page in Wikipedia, having suggested representatives of community of this website to express opinions on a similar act. According to the founder of Wikipedia, the idea of "self-censorship" appeared at him after earlier in 2011 the similar act was carried out by community of the Italian^[1].

"Several months ago the community of authors of the Italian Wikipedia made the decision to make empty all pages in the encyclopedia for a short time frame as a protest against the law which could violate their rights. Soon the parliament of Italy repealed this bill. You know about it or not, but much more dangerous law under the misleading heading Stop Online Piracy Act can be adopted already soon", - noted Wales. He also announced users of Wikipedia that he will soon participate in a meeting in the White House together with representatives of other Internet companies at which it is going to discuss SOPA together with politicians.

According to Wales, having made all Wikipedia pages, one of the most popular websites in the world, empty, the Internet community will eloquently show to Washington the position on this occasion. "I consider that that action in Italy was very efficient, and it can be even more powerful in this case", - the founder of Wikipedia told.

Representatives of community Wikipedia, in general, supported the idea of Wales though some and stated the disapproval, considering that Wikipedia is not the suitable place for political protests.

The chairman of the board of directors of Google company Eric Schmidt also passed an opinion on SOPA in December, 2011. According to him, the new bill "criminalizes fundamental structure of the Internet". "Having criminalized links to different materials, these laws will just force users to delete content from Network. In case of adoption of this bill, all of us will suffer", - Schmidt considers.

The member of the House of Representatives of the U. S. Congress Lamar Smith is the main author of the bill on fight against piracy in SOPA Network — it is ready to delete from it the caused much controversy regulations on an obligation of Internet service providers to block access to the foreign websites accused of copyright violation of the American companies. The congressman claims that discussions of the bill with the different organizations of the industry led to such solution. Nevertheless, he emphasizes, search of methods of fight against the foreign websites which are illegally spreading materials among the American consumers will be continued.

In January, 2012 senator of the USA Patrick Leahy said that he is going to make the similar amendment to the bill PROTECT IP which also sparked mass criticism as from business companies, and defenders of the civil rights.

Opponents of the bills SOPA and PROTECT IP consider the proposed amendments insufficient. Projects still provide a possibility of pronouncement of writs to any company publishing including, hyperlinks to the websites accused of copyright violation.

You See Also

• Intellectual property (patents)
• Copyright on the Internet
• Computer right
• All-Russian Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO)
• Licensing of software
• The pirated software in Russia and the world (Unlicensed software)

Notes