Why SOPA and PIPA are Bad

UPDATE! January 20: As of this morning, Representative Lamar Smith, the main sponsor of SOPA (Stop Online Privacy Act,) indefinitely postponed hearings on the act, and Senator Harry Reid, main sponsor of PIPA (Protect IP Act) has postponed Tuesday’s vote on that.

 

Smith said, “I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”

 

 

Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) tweeted three times. Put together, the messages say, “In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s vote on the PROTECT IP Act. There’s no reason that legitimate issues raised about PROTECT IP can’t be resolved. Counterfeiting & piracy cost 1000s of jobs yearly. Americans rightfully expect to be fairly compensated for their work. I’m optimistic that we can reach compromise on PROTECT IP in coming weeks.”

 

UPDATE from January 18:The latest news looks good for the cause of Internet Freedom. It also shows that politicians are finally willing to listen to the opinions of leaders in the fields of technology, science and communications. I have to admit I was worried that the lack of blackouts by some of the big Internet players would render the blackout day ineffective, but it turns out that the outcry has been enough.

According to the New York Times, the blackouts have inspired key Senators to change their minds about PIPA, the Protect Intellectual Property Act that’s before the Senate.

As of this afternoon, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a PIPA co-sponsor, no longer backs it. Also out are co-sponsor Orrin Hatch, John Cornyn, Roy Blunt, Mark Kirk, Jim DeMint and Scott Brown.

And now, my original post:

 

There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel; here are some clear and informative articles about the issue, which, as you may have noticed, has caused some very popular websites to go black today, Wednesday, January 18, 2012.

 

 

Brian Barrett of Gizmodo wrote What Is SOPA?

 

 

In GigaOm, Colleen Taylor interviewed Tim O’Reilly for Tim O’Reilly: Why I’m Fighting SOPA

 

 

 

 

Here’s an easy-to-understand article by Andy Greenberg of Forbes from a few days ago, which covers Obama’s stand against SOPA and PIPA and the delay of the hearings that were set for today: SOPA On The Ropes: House Delays Vote As Obama Comes Out Against Copyright Bill

 

Wanna know who’s down today? Steven Vaughn-Nichols of ZDNet — whose photo is too tiny to add! — wrote Who, besides Wikipedia, is going dark and why

 

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