There were different but similar copyright bills in the
112th United States Congress
The 112th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, from January 3, 2011, until January 3, 2013. It convened in Washington, D.C. on January 3, 2011, and ended on January 3, 2013, 17 ...
: The
Stop Online Piracy Act
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was a controversial proposed United States congressional bill to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to combat online copyright infringement and online trafficking in counterfeit goods. Introduced on O ...
(SOPA) in the House of Representatives and the
PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate. A typical route for legislation like this is to pass some version in both houses (so called ''companion bills''), then refer the two bills to a
conference committee
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
, which would produce a single bill likely to pass both houses.
These bills were motivated by concerns of copyright holders that their copyright protection in being undermined by the illegal dissemination of copyrighted information via the Internet. Opponents of the proposed legislation say that the proposed remedies are far worse than the problem they are intended to solve.
Economic impact of SOPA / PIPA
Negative impact on web hosting services
Journalist
Rebecca MacKinnon
Rebecca MacKinnon (born September 16, 1969) is an author, researcher, Internet freedom advocate, and co-founder of the citizen media network Global Voices. She is notable as a former CNN journalist who headed the CNN bureaus in Beijing and later ...
argued that making companies liable for users' actions could have a
chilling effect
In a legal context, a chilling effect is the inhibition or discouragement of the legitimate exercise of natural and legal rights by the threat of legal sanction. A chilling effect may be caused by legal actions such as the passing of a law, the ...
on user-generated sites like YouTube. "The intention is not the same as China’s Great Firewall, a nationwide system of Web censorship, but the practical effect could be similar".
The
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ...
(EFF) has warned that
Etsy
Etsy, Inc. is an American e-commerce company focused on handmade or vintage items and craft supplies. These items fall under a wide range of categories, including jewelry, bags, clothing, home décor and furniture, toys, art, as well as craft ...
,
Flickr
Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and profession ...
and
Vimeo
Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...
all seem likely to shut down if the bill becomes law.
According to critics, the bill would ban linking to sites deemed offending, even in search results
and on services such as
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
.
Many
cloud computing
Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mu ...
and Web hosting services may leave the US to avoid lawsuits.
The
Motion Picture Association of America
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distrib ...
claimed the act's effect on business would be slight, noting that at least 16 countries block websites, and the internet still functions in those countries.
Denmark, Finland and Italy blocked
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay (sometimes abbreviated as TPB) is an online index of digital content of entertainment media and software. Founded in 2003 by Swedish think tank Piratbyrån, The Pirate Bay allows visitors to search, download, and contribute ...
after courts ruled in favor of music and film industry litigation, and a coalition of film and record companies has threatened to sue
British Telecom
BT Group plc (trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, b ...
if it does not follow suit.
General threat to web-related businesses
A news analysis in the information technology magazine
eWeek
''eWeek'' (''Enterprise Newsweekly'', stylized as ''eWEEK''), formerly PCWeek, is a technology and business magazine. Previously owned by QuinStreet; Nashville, Tennessee marketing company TechnologyAdvice acquired eWeek in 2020.
The print edi ...
stated, "The language of SOPA is so broad, the rules so unconnected to the reality of Internet technology and the penalties so disconnected from the alleged crimes that this bill could effectively kill e-commerce or even normal Internet use. The bill also has grave implications for existing U.S., foreign and international laws and is sure to spend decades in court challenges."
It was similarly claimed that, "any US consumer who uses a website overseas immediately gives the US jurisdiction the power to potentially take action against it."
On October 28, 2011, the
EFF called the bill a "massive piece of job-killing Internet regulation," and said, "This bill cannot be fixed; it must be killed."
Gary Shapiro, CEO of the
Consumer Electronics Association
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) is a standard and trade organization representing 1,376 consumer technology companies in the United States. CTA works to influence public policy, holds events such as the Consumer Electronics Show (CE ...
, stated that "The bill attempts a radical restructuring of the laws governing the Internet," and that "It would undo the legal safe harbors that have allowed a world-leading Internet industry to flourish over the last decade. It would expose legitimate American businesses and innovators to broad and open-ended liability. The result will be more lawsuits, decreased venture capital investment, and fewer new jobs."
A similar claim was made by
CrowdFlower.
Strategy& (Formerly Booz & Company) on November 16 released a study, funded by
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
, finding that almost all of the 200 venture capitalists and angel investors interviewed would stop funding digital media intermediaries if the House bill becomes law. More than 80 percent said they would rather invest in a risky, weak economy with the current laws than a strong economy with the proposed law in effect. If legal ambiguities were removed and good faith provisions in place, investing would increase by nearly 115 percent.
Civil liberties issues with SOPA / PIPA
There were concerns that the bills were too vague and could be used for prior censorship. If
WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...
were accused of distributing copyrighted content, U.S. search engines could be served a court order to block search results pointing to WikiLeaks. Requiring search engines to remove links to an entire website altogether due to an infringing page would raise free speech concerns regarding lawful content hosted elsewhere on the site.
proxy servers
In computer networking, a proxy server is a server application that acts as an intermediary between a client requesting a resource and the server providing that resource.
Instead of connecting directly to a server that can fulfill a request ...
, such as those used during the
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and econo ...
, can also be used to
thwart
A thwart is a part of an undecked boat that provides seats for the crew and structural rigidity for the hull. A thwart goes from one side of the hull to the other. There might be just one thwart in a small boat, or many in a larger boat, especial ...
copyright enforcement and therefore may be made illegal by the act.
The bills could allegedly be used to block any web site with a page that was identified in the U.K. or France as containing
hate speech
Hate speech is defined by the ''Cambridge Dictionary'' as "public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation". Hate speech is "usually thoug ...
or violations of celebrities'
privacy
Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively.
The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of ...
.
The Center for Democracy and Technology warned, "If
SOPA
Sopa or SOPA may refer to:
* Sopa (tribe), an Albanian tribe of the Sharr Mountains
* Lake Sopa, Albania
* School of Performing Arts Seoul, an arts high school in Seoul, South Korea
* Senior Officer Present Afloat, a term used in the U.S. Navy ...
and
PIPA
The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a () is a traditional Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ran ...
are enacted, the US government must be prepared for other governments to follow suit, in service to whatever social policies they believe are important—whether restricting hate speech, insults to public officials, or political dissent."
From the other side, the
AFL-CIO's Paul Almeida stated that free speech was not a relevant consideration, because "The First Amendment does not protect stealing goods off trucks."
Floyd Abrams said “The Protect IP Act neither compels nor prohibits free speech or communication… the bill sets a high bar in defining when a website or domain is eligible for potential actions by the Attorney General…”.
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
chairman
Eric Schmidt
Eric Emerson Schmidt (born April 27, 1955) is an American businessman and software engineer known for being the CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011, executive chairman of Google from 2011 to 2015, executive chairman of Alphabet Inc. from 2015 to 20 ...
has stated that the measures called for in the PROTECT IP Act are overly simple solutions to a complex problem, and that the precedent set by pruning DNS entries is bad from the viewpoint of
free speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been ...
and would be a step toward less permissive Internet environments, such as China's.
A group of Law professors said that the PROTECT IP and Stop Online Piracy bills could have the opposite of the intended impact, by driving users to unregulated, alternative DNS systems, and it could hinder the government from conducting legitimate Internet regulation.
They question the constitutionality of both bills, believing they could have potentially disastrous technical consequences and would make US internet law more like the laws of repressive regimes.
Both bills provide "nothing more than ex parte proceedings—proceedings at which only one side (the prosecutor or even a private plaintiff) need present evidence and the operator of the allegedly infringing site need not be present nor even made aware that the action was pending against his or her 'property.' This not only violates basic principles of due process by depriving persons of property without a fair hearing and a reasonable opportunity to be heard, it also constitutes an unconstitutional abridgement of the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment."
Technical issues regarding SOPA / PIPA
The DNS filtering provisions in the bill "raise serious technical and security concerns" and would "break the Internet", according to
whitepaper
A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. A white pape ...
by five Internet engineers. Other engineers and proponents of the act have called those concerns groundless and without merit.
[Stopping the Pirates Who Roam the Web](_blank)
''The New York Times''; June 17, 2011
One particular concern expressed by network experts was that hackers would offer workarounds to private users to allow access to government-seized sites, but these workarounds might also jeopardize security by redirecting unsuspecting users to scam websites. Supporters of the bill argued that widespread circumvention of the filtering would be unlikely. The DNS provisions were compared to car door locks, noting that while they aren't foolproof against thieves, we should still use them.
A browser plugin called MAFIAAFire Redirector already exists that redirects visitors to an alternative domain when a site's primary domain has been seized. The Mozilla Foundation says that
United States Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the Federal government of the United States, U.S. United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the I ...
(DHS) requested by phone that
Mozilla
Mozilla (stylized as moz://a) is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, spreads and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting exclusively free software and open standards, wi ...
remove the plugin, a request with which they have not yet complied. Instead, Mozilla's legal counsel has asked for further information from the DHS, including legal justification for the request.
Mozilla fights DHS over anti-MPAA, RIAA utility
CNET News; May 6, 2011
References
{{reflist, 3, refs=
[{{cite news, url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/opinion/firewall-law-could-infringe-on-free-speech.html, title=Stop the Great Firewall of America, author=Rebecca MacKinnon, work=New York Times, date=November 15, 2011, accessdate=November 18, 2011]
[{{cite web, url=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/disastrous-ip-legislation-back-%E2%80%93-and-it%E2%80%99s-worse-ever, title=Disastrous IP Legislation Is Back – And It's Worse than Ever, author=Corynne McSherry, publisher=Electronic Frontier Foundation, date=October 26, 2011, accessdate=2011-12-19]
[{{cite web, url=http://cdt.org/files/pdfs/NC-Analysis_of_HR3261_FINAL.pdf, title=H.R. 3261, "Stop Online Piracy Act" ("SOPA"): Explanation of Bill and Summary of Concerns, author=Markham C. Erickson, publisher=NetCoalition, date=November 1, 2011, accessdate=2011-12-19]
[{{citation, url=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/111511-lawmakers-seek-alternative-to-stop-253139.html , title=Lawmakers seek alternative to Stop Online Piracy Act: Opponents of the legislation also complain that sponsors are railroading it through Congress , author=Grant Gross , date=November 15, 2011 , publisher=Network World , accessdate=2011-12-19 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112024605/http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/111511-lawmakers-seek-alternative-to-stop-253139.html , archivedate=2012-01-12 ]
[{{cite web, url=http://infojustice.org/archives/6182, title=Notes from the House Judiciary Committee Hearing on the Stop Online Piracy Act, author=Mike Palmetto, date=November 18, 2011, accessdate=2011-12-19]
[{{citation, url=http://www.zdnet.com/blog/london/british-isp-told-to-block-pirate-bay-torrent-site-or-face-court/571, title=British ISP told to block Pirate Bay torrent site, or face court, author=Zack Whittacker, date=November 4, 2011, publisher=ZDNet, accessdate=2011-12-19]
[{{cite web, url=http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Cloud-Computing/House-SOPA-Hearings-Reveal-AntiInternet-Bias-on-Committee-Witness-List-222080/, title=House SOPA Hearings Reveal Anti-internet Bias on Committee, Witness List, work=Cloud Computing News, author=Wayne Rash, publisher=eWeek, date=November 16, 2011, accessdate=2011-12-19]
[{{citation, url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/nov/16/sopa-condemned-internet-blacklist-bill, title=Sopa condemned by web giants as 'internet blacklist bill': Google, Twitter and eBay say controversial Stop Online Piracy Act would give US authorities too much power over websites, author=Dominic Rushe, work=The Guardian, date=November 16, 2011, accessdate=2011-12-19]
[{{cite web, title=SOPA: Hollywood Finally Gets A Chance to Break the Internet, url=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/sopa-hollywood-finally-gets-chance-break-internet, author=Corynne McSherry, date=October 28, 2011, accessdate=2011-12-19]
[{{citation, url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/11/at-web-censorship-hearing-congress-guns-for-pro-pirate-google.ars, title=At Web censorship hearing, Congress guns for "pro-pirate" Google, author=Nate Anderson, publisher=Ars Technica, date=November 16, 2011, accessdate=2011-12-19]
[{{cite web, url=http://www.inc.com/articles/201111/why-start-ups-are-scared-of-the-stop-internet-piracy-act.html, title=Why Start-ups Are Scared of SOPA, author=Tim Donnelly, publisher=Inc., date=November 17, 2011, accessdate=November 18, 2011]
[{{cite web, url=http://www.strategyand.pwc.com/global/home/press/article/49953717, title=Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists Say They Will Stop Funding Some Internet Start-Up Business Models if Tough New Rules Are Enacted, Finds Booz & Company Study, date=November 16, 2011, accessdate=2011-12-19, url-status=dead, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141012004400/http://www.strategyand.pwc.com/global/home/press/article/49953717, archivedate=October 12, 2014]
[{{cite web, last=Phillips, first=Abigail, title=The "PROTECT IP" Act: COICA Redux, url=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/05/protect-ip-act-coica-redux, accessdate=22 May 2011]
[{{cite web, url=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/11/hollywood-new-war-on-software-freedom-and-internet-innovation, title=Hollywood's New War on Software Freedom and Internet Innovation, author=Peter Eckersley, work=Deep Links, publisher=Electronic Frontier Foundation, date=November 11, 2011, accessdate=2011-12-19]
[{{cite web, url=http://cdt.org/blogs/cynthia-wong/1811us-piracy-law-could-threaten-human-rights, title=US Piracy Law Could Threaten Human Rights, author=Cynthia Wong, publisher=Center for Democracy and Technology, date=November 18, 2011, accessdate=2011-12-19]
[{{cite web , last1=Lemley , first1=Mark , last2=Levine , first2=David S. , last3=Post , first3=David G. , url=http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/dont-break-internet , title=Don't Break the Internet , publisher=Stanford Law Review , date=December 19, 2011 , accessdate=December 21, 2011 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111223065426/http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/dont-break-internet , archivedate=December 23, 2011 ]
United States copyright law
Proposed legislation of the 112th United States Congress