The bill known as SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) * now has a sister bill called the Senate PROTECT IP Act (PIPA)* and it has been scheduled for a cloture vote on January 24, 2012 by Democratic Senator Harry Reid. The cloture vote would be used to circumvent Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who has managed to put the bill on hold with the help of a few other senators. It’s being slipped past the American people, Click here for more info from Death & Taxes Mag
As I reported in mid-December, it gives the government the power to shut down websites if even one page has any potential infringement.
It would allow copyright holders to privately sue against alleged infringing websites. Whereas the current law protects from frivolous lawsuits – this one won’t despite what your congressmen are telling you.
Inadvertent infringement by grassroots bloggers will be fodder for lawyers. Hollywood is after “piracy,” but this bill goes way beyond piracy into censorship
Expect websites and blogs to shut down in droves.
We already have to suffer the censorship of our movies, and now we will probably have to contend with the censorship of our Internet. This garbage legislation has bipartisan support.
Its intent was to stop online piracy.
Piracy is a bad thing and we do need to address the protection of intellectual property rights better. Unfortunately, this bill will shut down sites like mine because it will prohibit linking to work that could be copyrighted – even screenshots in the news.
Even audio commentaries added to something that might be linked to something copyrighted could be a problem and cause the government to immediately shut down any website they want to shut down.
Read more here: SOPA, PIPA, Whatever they are calling it this week
It does alter copyright law however.