The Stop Online Piracy Act Blackout Is Coming

However, Smith had no idea his bill would awaken a sleeping giant.

All over the Internet, website operators are banding together in opposition of the bill, and the fierce public outcry from Internet users is becoming too loud to ignore. The public opposition is greater than the backlash against bills of decades past that have attempted to limit the freedom of the Internet. On January 18, websites around the world will stand in solidarity during what has been dubbed the “Stop SOPA Blackout Day.” Websites will completely shut down in demonstration from 8am – 8pm EST.
But let’s back up for a minute. To understand how SOPA will affect an Internet Marketing blog, we must first look at what the bill actually does.

Stop Online Piracy Act – The Basics

In theory, if the SOPA bill joins the existing piracy laws, it will allow United States law enforcement to assist copyright holders in combating internet piracy by stopping people who display their copyrighted intellectual property on “rouge” websites. As it was originally proposed, the bill would allow copyright holders to partner with the U.S. Department of Justice in order to obtain court orders against these websites. Although the ability to obtain such an order depends on who asks for it, if obtained, it would allow the seekers to shut down all business between operators of the offending sites and payment gateways like Paypal.

The bill would also crush all affiliations that offending sites may have with online ad networks and bar these sites from appearing in search engine listings. Further, if SOPA becomes law, all Internet service providers would be required to block users from accessing the sites as well. SOPA would turn streaming content that contains copyrighted material into a crime, and you may face a penalty of five years in prison and a hefty fine if you are sharing such content anywhere – including on social networks.

Perhaps the most disturbing portion of this bill is the immunity it gives to Internet service providers who take it upon themselves to block access to websites they feel are breaking the law. The absence of liability they will enjoy will give them the incentive to police themselves accordingly. This means that your websites may experience a crackdown from both the government and your ISP, not to mention from your hosting company and social networking sites.

The SOPA Blackout: Who’s on Board?

Some big names on the web are joining the movement. Reddit has already committed to shutting down, and many other websites have followed the news aggregator’s lead. There is heated debate over whether the heaviest hitters – think Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Wikipedia – will join in as well. It remains to be seen. Facebook did announce earlier this week that it has scheduled a mysterious press conference on the blackout date, so there is widespread speculation about whether the meeting will be about the Stop Online Piracy Act.

Via: Background Check Resource

If you want to participate, you can use one of numerous WordPress plugins that will shut down your site on January 18 with just one click. If you have a non-Wordpress site, but you still want to get involved, you can visit SOPAblackout.org to get HTML that you can paste into your website’s code to shut down it down on the big day. You can also send a quick note to your local representative to voice your opposition. If you are in favor of the SOPA bill, don’t worry. The government will probably ban this post after the Stop Online Privacy Act passes since it mentions Google.

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Tags: internet piracy, piracy laws, SOPA blackout, stop online piracy act