> SOUTHERN INDIANA —
SOPA and PIPA have been put on hold thanks to public outcry and protests from online information providers, but they are not dead, and it’s our duty to keep track of them.
The bills — known as the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 in the Senate — were created with the official intention of preventing the illegal streaming and downloading of movies, music and other copyrighted material. Opponents of the bills believe they are too broad and would have unintended consequences. An example of such unintended consequences was explained eloquently in a recent Time magazine article: “They would ensnare small sites that have done nothing wrong in expensive legal battles. Larger sites like YouTube and Facebook would have to begin burdensome new monitoring of their users’ activities or risk legal action because a few teenage girls posted a video of themselves bopping around to a copyrighted Katy Perry song.”
That sounds like a pain in the butt for YouTube and Facebook, but if you don’t work for them, why should you care?
Well, opponents of the bill warn of other, much scarier, unintended consequences. An example of those unintended consequences was explained in an article on Forbes.com by Derek Broes, a digital media and technology executive.
“If the government, and those behind government, didn’t like Huffington Post or Breitbart.com it would now be legally plausible and simple to shut them down. After all, Huffington Post editors at some point in time have posted links to content from CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and other organizations. These networks could now claim that the Huffington Post was infringing upon their copyrights, and that Huffington editors, under SOPA/PIPA, be charged for each offense and go to jail. Yes jail.”
Broes follows this example up by addressing the common response from proponents of the bills who say a situation like that would never happen. He has a nice response, but let me put it to you this way: If you think the government or a corporation or anyone, really, won’t try to construe laws to meet their own personal needs regardless of the original intent of the law, then I’ve got some ocean-front property in Arizona to sell you.
If a law has the potential to allow the government or anyone to infringe upon our right to free speech, it should not be passed. The First Amendment is our most important amendment, which might be why it’s first. If you don’t believe me, I’ll spare you a history lesson, but think of all the events that we know about because of the First Amendment: Watergate, the Pentagon Papers, Phil Hartman’s spot-on impressions of Bill Clinton on Saturday Night Live during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Yup, the First Amendment allows us to discuss and criticize the government for their actions whether they like it or not, but I’m sure if these bills are passed they won’t use the law to stop the dissemination of information that might result in unwanted criticism.
And, in a bit of irony, the First Amendment is the reason we are even aware of SOPA and PIPA. An article on the Los Angeles Times website discusses the response of Chinese bloggers to the issue. A quote in the article from blogger Zhao Jing, who uses the pen name Michael Anti, according to the Times article, explains it best when he says, “Only an American company could protest the way Wikipedia or Google has to the government. A Chinese company would never get away with that.”
See why this amendment is at the top of the list?
This is why each and every American must be diligent in defending his or her right to free speech. It’s also why each and every American must continue to monitor bills that are being drafted in Congress and debate and discuss how they will affect us if they become law.
At the end of Broes’ article he warns that, “Hollywood has many large donors that are huge contributors to [President] Obama so, even though Harry Reid postponed a vote on the bill, you can bet that they will try to wait for the frenzy to calm down before voting on a somewhat different version of the bill and most likely have a different name than SOPA or PIPA.”
Be aware of what happens with these and other bills. Our freedom of speech depends on it.
— Michael Reschke is the copy editor at the News and Tribune. Reach him at michael.reschke@newsandtribune.com or by phone at 812-206-2150.
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RESCHKE: Don’t forget about our old buddies SOPA and PIPA
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