The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was a 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 October 26, 2011, by Representative Lamar Smith (R–TX), provisions included the requesting of court orders to bar advertising networks and payment facilities from conducting business with infringing websites, and search engines from linking to the websites, and court orders requiring Internet service providers to block access to the websites. The proposed law would have expanded existing criminal laws to include unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content, imposing a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Proponents of the legislation said it would protect the intellectual-property market and corresponding industry, jobs, and revenue, and was necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws, especially against foreign-owned and operated websites. Proponents claimed that flaws in existing laws did not cover foreign-owned and operated websites, and cited examples of active promotion of rogue websites by U.S. search engines. The bill appeared to have strong, bipartisan support. It was introduced in the House and was sent to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration. It also received support from the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Association of Attorneys General, the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Better Business Bureau, the AFL-CIO and 22 trade unions, and the National Consumers League. Opponents argued that the proposed legislation threatened free speech and innovation, and enabled law enforcement to block access to entire Internet domains due to infringing content posted on a single blog or webpage. They also stated that SOPA would bypass the "safe harbor" protections from liability presently afforded to websites by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The American Library Association and others also claimed that the legislation's emphasis on stronger copyright enforcement would expose libraries to prosecution. Other opponents claimed that requiring search engines to delete domain names violated the First Amendment and could begin a worldwide arms race of unprecedented Internet censorship. Human rights organizations, including Reporters Without Borders, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Human Rights Watch also opposed the bill. The move to protest against SOPA and PIPA was initiated when Fight for the Future organized thousands of the most popular websites in the world, including Reddit, Craigslist, and the English Wikipedia, to consider temporarily closing their content and redirecting users to a message opposing the proposed legislation. On January 18, 2012, the English Wikipedia, Google, and an estimated 7,000 other smaller websites ceased standard operation as part of a coordinated service blackout as an attempt to spread awareness and objection to the bill. A banner the next day said more than 162 million people viewed its banner. In many cases, websites replaced the entirety of their main content with facts regarding SOPA and the entity's case against its passing. Boycotts of companies and organizations that support the legislation were organized, along with an opposition rally held in New York City. Google announced that it had collected over 4.5 million signatures opposing the bill in their January petition. Access to websites of several pro-SOPA organizations and companies such as the RIAA, CBS, and others was impeded or blocked with denial-of-service attacks which started on January 19, 2012. Self-proclaimed members of the "hacktivist" group Anonymous claimed responsibility and stated the attacks were a protest of both SOPA and the United States Department of Justice's shutdown of Megaupload on that same day. Some opponents of the bill supported the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) as an alternative. On January 20, 2012, Smith, who chaired the Judiciary Committee, postponed plans to draft the bill: "The committee remains committed to finding a solution to the problem of online piracy that protects American intellectual property and innovation ... The House Judiciary Committee will postpone consideration of the legislation until there is wider agreement on a solution." The bill was effectively dead at that point.
History
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
