Switchfast Blog: The Future of IT
Understanding SOPA & PIPA
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 by Michael Lewis
On January 18, many popular websites including Wikipedia and
Google have "blackout" their websites to protest two pieces of
legislation currently working their way through congress.
"Stop Online Piracy Act" and "PROTECT IP Act" are designed to
provide tools for law enforcement and copyright holders to protect
their intellectual property rights. Their is nothing wrong with
rights holder wanting to protect their intellectual property.
However,
if made law:
As drafted, the legislation would grant the government and
private parties unprecedented power to interfere with the
Internet's underlying infrastructure. The government would be able
to force ISPs and search engines to block users' attempts to reach
certain websites' URLs. In response, third parties will woo average
users to alternative servers that offer access to the entire
Internet (not just the newly censored U.S. version), which will
create new computer security vulnerabilities as the Internet grows
increasingly balkanized.
These bills go further to give american businesses the right to
censer foreign websites and require ISP's to actively monitor their
own users for potential violations of copywriter infringement.
If you are interested in learning more about SOPA and PIPA below
you will find links more information about the issue: 1
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