SOPA, Internet, Censorship, and You

spyed.deviantart.com/journal/R… $spyed's journal entry regarding this.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Onl… - Wikipedia

This is a informative article, outside of the normal DLD activities, to bring awareness to a pair of bills currently under much discussion and debate. These  bills are called called SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIP (Protect IP), presented to the House of Representatives and the senate (respectively) in the United States. Later in this article, we will also discuss how these bills have a world wide significance. At the end of the article are several links to the actual bill, news articles, and forum/journals related to this topic. Our aim here is to give to a brief overview, and to answer some questions concerning this debate.

SOPA itself is an attempt to stop online piracy both domestic and foreign by the United States Gov't. It employs a variety of tactics in order to achieve this, including scanning and recording of data transfers, blocking DNS lookups of any infringing sites, and denial of payment to sites via payment providers. The wording and measures used within the bill itself make it very dangerous, allowing it to apply to sites such as Facebook, Flickr, Google, YouTube, and yes..deviantArt.

I heard this was defeated in the House already. Why discuss it?
I have yet to find a reliable source to confirm this being  defeated. In the event it does not pass the pass the House, it is expected to be reintroduced and attempted again.

This is censorship. It can't pass, it's against the first amendment / against the law/ etc
Not true. The gov't has violated First Amendment before in the case of the Patriot Act (ACLU brief: www.aclu.org/national-security…, NY-DN www.nydailynews.com/news/judge…). That act was rewritten in 2005 and 2007, but is still a source of controversy due to it violating prestablished rights and overturning laws that were already in effect. Despite it violating the Bill of Rights, the bill was still passed, and was granted a 4 year extension in the spring of 2011.
What makes that scary is that, yes, this new bill should not make it through congress and should be shot down. But bills like this have made it through Congress and have been upheld later on, so we can't count on it being rejected even if it does violate First Amendment.

How can this effect me in Canada/Ireland/Anywhere outside the US?
Many popular websites depend on  social networking / linking, payment for features, or donations in order to survive. Imagine the US being unable to type type in Ebay, Facebook, Flickr, or deviantArt into theit browsers anymore, and the number of users these site would have to deal with no longer being able to sign in. Or  think about some of these site no longer being able to collect moneys from US residents- IE, Ebay not being able to process US payment, dA not being able to process subscription or good orders.

Piracy needs to be stopped. If it takes a heavy hand to do it...
Pirates are resourceful. Much more resourceful then a simple DNS block. goto:'s have existed for a long time, straight IP and peer to peer via IP address would still exist..
This  bill would be like putting a bandaid on your knee because you cut your finger. It would not help the problem at all. techland.time.com/2011/11/17/s… (Time : Techland)

www.google.com/url?sa=t&rc… (SOPA, PDF Format, R1)
www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11… (SOPA: Google Warns Lawmakers That Online Piracy Bill Could Depress Investment - Huffington Post)
www.washingtonpost.com/busines… (SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) lawmaker opposition grows as debate heats up - Washington Post)
techland.time.com/2011/11/17/s… (SOPA Won’t Stop Online Piracy, Would Censor Everyone Else - Time : Techland)
news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-573… (SOPA's latest threat: IP blocking, privacy-busting packet inspection - Cnet)

SOPA @ Google : www.google.com/search?q=SOPA+c…

Please, read about this issue, educate yourself, and educate others.
Thank you.

Prepared by Ebahr