Janet Giampietro :: Gblog

Today, 18 january 2012, is a day that we’ll live in ignorance. Many Internet sites have begun 24- and 12-hour blackouts in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) in the Senate.

Internet companies (including Google, Wikipedia, Firefox, Wordpress, Reddit and Creative Commons, among others) are concerned that SOPA and PIPA, if passed, could be used to target legitimate sites where users share content.

The issues are complex

• A great, succinct overview from The Washington Post WONKBLOG looks at the top issues.
• The Washington Post also provides a bigger picture on what SOPA is, and what the stakes are.
• A concise post from technorati highlights today’s happenings.

The issues are confusing

Uploading movies, music, original artwork and sharing them without consent are more clear cut issues of copyright infringement. But the Internet, especially with the evolution of social media, are based on sharing and spreading content.

Tech companies argue that there must be warning before legal action or punishment, but the legislation on the table favors immediate shutdown.

How will this affect the Internet of the future?

Important upcoming dates

• January 24, 2012: Senate votes on PIPA
• February: House Judiciary Committee continues its markup of SOPA

Would this strangle-hold actually empower the infringement extremists? How do you feel about these potential changes?

Tags: content sharing, copyright infringement, Internet blackout, internet censorship, social media

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 at 12:45 pm and is filed under Observations, Social Media Insights, Under Discussion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.