The battle against online piracy has been a never-ending fight since the rise and fall of Napster at the turn of the century.
The Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America and the U.S. government have taken aim at online piracy. So far, nothing has worked in deterring illegal downloads.
Besides arresting a handful of soccer moms for downloading a few songs, not much has affected online copyright infringement.
Over the summer, the U.S. Senate reviewed the “Ten Strikes” bill, which helps better define both criminal acts and their penalties.
The bill’s vague wording essentially could send anyone who uploaded copyrighted material to the Internet to prison if said material was viewed more than 10 times.
The status of “Ten Strikes” is still under review.
Earlier this semester, the MPAA and RIAA struck a deal with Internet service providers to help monitor those pirating illegal material and even administer penalties after six warnings. These penalties include slowing down or capping the offender’s Internet connection.
However, since the initial announcement, I have yet to hear any cases of slowed Internet due to this new partnership.
It’s evident these two recent actions toward online piracy still aren’t making more than a dent in the overall “problem.”
Last month, Texas Rep. Lamar Smith introduced the Stop Online Piracy Act to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Like similar acts before it, SOPA is targeted at online piracy and protecting copyrights and intellectual properties of their owners.
The bill expands the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight line trafficking of copyrighted IPs, essentially giving the government the right to execute a “killswitch” to all websites that violate the terms in the bill.
Yet, as of now, the wording of the bill is so vague almost every website would fall victim.
While the bill is obviously set to go after sites like The Pirate Bay or any other torrent-hosting page, it could also affect pages like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
If you have a website or a blog hosting any type of copyrighted material — pictures, videos, music, etc. — you’re in violation of SOPA and your website can be shut down by the government. Say goodbye to your precious Tumblr.
Censorship is bad — plain and simple. The government shouldn’t have this kind of power over something as big as the Internet.
Many major tech corporations such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and eBay are vocally opposed to the piracy bill.
The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on SOPA on Nov. 16, which led to the date being known as American Censorship Day.
Many sites, including Reddit and Tumblr, hosted a black bar over their site’s logo with the words “STOP CENSORSHIP.”
The Nov. 16 hearing ended with the bill being scheduled for further review on Dec. 15. The committee chairman claims he is still in discussions and the bill is open for change.
I hope the committee is ready for a lot of change because this is ridiculous.
I wish I could go deeper into this major problem of government intrusion, but unfortunately my 600 words are quickly running out.
If SOPA were to pass in its current form, America could see something similar to the Great Firewall of China and its level of Internet monitoring and censorship.
This is a serious issue and could change the Internet as we know it. Let’s make sure this doesn’t happen.
Contact Louisiana Senator David Vitter at (202) 224-4623 or Senator Mary Landrieu at (202) 224-5824 and demand a free and uncensored Internet. Tell them to oppose SOPA.
You can also go to ContactingTheCongress.org for the phone numbers of all seven Louisiana State Representatives, as well as other important contact information for your politicians.
 
Adam Arinder is a 22-year-old communication studies senior from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_aarinder.
 
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Contact Adam Arinder at [email protected]