SOPA & PIPA - It Ain’t Good

SOPA and PIPA are before Congress as a means to fight illegal online piracy.  

First, PIPA and SOPA would censor the web and would give the entertainment industry a way to do so which pretty much resembles how China censors the Internet. If the entertainment industry sees something on eBay which could infringe on copyrighted material, the result doesn't have to be the deletion of that one item. They could shut down the entirety of eBay. How do you think eBay, its investors, and its users feel about this?  The same goes for Facebook.  The way the bills are worded, if somebody mentions Lady Gaga and her label decides that the comment was infringment on their trademark, they could potentially have the entirety of Facebook shut down.  Your Farmville crops would surely die.  Oh, and I just mentioned Lady Gaga.  I hope our site doesn't get shut down if the bills pass.

All in all, that kind of radical power in censoring the internet would create huge risk for many businesses which operate online.  That kind of risk will stiffle innovation.  If SOPA and PIPA had existed when Zuckerberg were back at Harvard thinking about Facebook, he may not have created it for the risk and liability of having conversations going on which might infringe on somebody's trademark.  When innovation is stiffled and investors see risk, that means they aren't as likely to invest in the startups and existing companies creating we enjoy online today.  What does that inevitably spell?  Unemployment for many.  Haven't we had enough of that?

And not only that, it gives them the power to reach out to banks and online payment providers and cut off funding for anybody they deem to be infringing.  Where's the due process?

Lastly, these guys won't stop piracy.  Yes, it's a problem, but all anybody has to do is get a new IP address for their site, or provide users *just* an IP address to continue using services.  If you take one down, they'll pop up in five other places.  It is my opinion that they need to shelve this communistic approach.  They need to sit down with people who actually understand the Internet and work out very targeted solutions to the piracy problem which won't jeopardize innovation, job creation and the freedom of expression on this medium which has become so much a part of our lives.

What are your thoughts?  Share in the comments...

Additional SOPA/PIPA Links:

SOPA, PIPA: What you need to know (CBS News)
End Piracy, Not Libery (Google)
Say No To SOPA (Zeldman)
Stop American Censorship

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