SOPA, Not Good

Image by future15pic via FlickrThere are two bills going through Congress right now that would have the ability to change the Internet as we know it.  And not in a good way, as its detractors would have you believe.

The House's Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate's Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) would outlaw pirating copyrighted materials over the Internet.  Both measures are supported by most of the big entertainment companies.  They also happen to own most of the news organizations, which is probably why you haven't heard much about this until now.

In protest, Wikipedia and other sites shut down all day Wednesday.  A few others blacked out some of their material, as if they were declassified CIA documents, to illustrate why Internet freedom is so important.  It keeps them in business, for one thing.

We understand why the likes of Disney and News Corporation (the owners of Fox and its networks) don't want knockoffs of their content turning up in China, or being used on others' websites without compensation.  What we don't understand is how the two bills were so broadly written, leaving the possibility that one claim of copyright infringement could shut down an otherwise innocent website.

The greatest threat to Internet freedom doesn't just come from proposed anti-piracy laws, but from companies such as The New York Times setting up paywalls on sites that used to be free.  If you can't afford the access, then you can't use the information.

We have often wondered what would happen if government took control of the Internet, which originally began as part of the military.  There'd be censorship, yes.  There would also be the United States Postal Service instead of Microsoft and Google handling e-mails and texting, and charging for them as a way to solve its financial problems.

Forgive us if this sounds like a glaring case of self-interest, but do you really want to go back to the days of writing checks, shopping in a catalog, taping music and TV shows on a recorder, and writing your innermost thoughts to the editor of the local newspaper?  That's all stuff you used to do before the Internet came along.

Those of us who remember when Bill Clinton was elected President and Seattle was better known for grunge music than coffee can handle going back to the way things were.  Those of you who don't remember will think that Armageddon has arrived, with all those laptops and smartphones rendered useless because of the passage of SOPA.  Well, maybe you can make a phone call . . .