SOPA Tide Turning

Congress seems to be getting the message – and SOPA, the controversial proposed “Stop Online Piracy Act” might be on its last legs.

Wednesday’s online protests and coordinated website blackouts by several members of a SOPA opposition group billing itself as The NetCoalition may have created the additional momentum needed to turn the congressional tide against SOPA.  Public awareness and opposition have been growing since mid-December.  Now, however – with the hearings only a few days away – members of Congress have begun to pull support as they rethink their positions on the issue.

Several Congressional representatives have taken to Twitter and Facebook, assuring the public that they will not back the bill.  Some are going so far as to predict that SOPA is a dead issue.

This turning tide is the result of massive public protest, industry protest, and substantial efforts on the part of the tech community to educate lawmakers who, by their own admission, lack a fundamental understanding of how the Internet works and how the average user would be affected by such sweeping legislation.

What SOPA Means

If SOPA passed, it would affect the Internet and its users in the following ways:

• SOPA would make the streaming of unauthorized content a felony.
• It would allow DNS blocking to take down any site that could “potentially enable” copyright infringement.  The site wouldn’t have to be participating in such infringement, it would only have to offer a forum in which this could happen.  (Say goodbye to YouTube, Facebook, Reddit…and every other site you have saved to your Favorites bar.)
• The Attorney General could shut down any site that it deems to be a potential offender without a warrant, without due process, and with only five days’ notice to submit an appeal.
• Targeted sites would be cut off from search engines, advertisers, and payment processors – essentially shutting off all traffic and revenue, instantly.
• Email providers could be forced to censor links that you send or receive.
• Links and content shared on social networks will be carefully monitored and possibly censored.

Critics have called the proposed legislation “Draconian,” and have stressed that it would repress creativity, take away forums of free speech, and destroy the Internet as we know it.