Based on the White House statement about Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the PROTECT IP Act and the Online Protection and Digital ENforcement Act (OPEN), those bills may be in serious trouble.
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), H.R. 3261, as originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice to take action against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. The court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. This creates a huge compliance headache for website publishers and the internet infrastructure.
Then there is the further erosion of civil liberties by allowing government intervention based on content. (Granted, the content is supposed to be illegal, but who determines it’s illegal?)
The bill would also make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime. We don’t need more criminal laws. Unfortunately, I think many members of Congress are taking positive positions on the legislation without understanding the implications.
Here are links about SOPA and the protest against it:
Compliance Building will shut down for most of the day, as will wikipedia, Boing Boing, the Cheezbuger network of sites and many other internet sites.
