Internet censorship threatened

Posting a link to a funny clip from a television show, or a sound bite of your favorite song could be a thing of the past.

Entertainment executives, like Hollywood filmmakers, claim that the illegal use of movies, including free downloads, prevents them from receiving revenue and profits. Ultimately, the industry wants to put a stop to the activity, leading to the creation of two bills - the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA).

While the main goal of the bills is to eliminate distribution of unpaid content, one of the largest counters to the proposition is that the bill will increase the potential for abusive censorship.

The temporary blackout of many major websites last week spotlighted the bills in protest.

Social networking discussions exploded, with many people puzzled over the sudden shutdown while others scrambled to find out what the bills are all about.

So what exactly are these bills, and why do they matter to the average web user?

The main point of these bills is to protect the entertainment industry.

Movies, television shows and music are downloaded for free by millions of users every day through foreign websites that offer the service. The process of downloading this content for free is called pirating.

Links to unpaid content are spread throughout the Internet through search engines, blog posts and social media outlets. Because of this, major movie studios and other entertainment corporations assert that they are losing revenue and want to stop the content from being accessed for free.

Enter PIPA, which would allow the Federal government to force U.S. Internet providers to block access to the domain names that are providing the free content. According to the bill, service providers will need to "take technically feasible and reasonable measures designed to prevent access by its subscribers located within the United States to the foreign infringing site."

It would also allow companies to sue websites that provide links to forbidden domain names. Under PIPA, corporations and the government could also cut off revenue that streams into the banned websites. Revenue generation methods like advertising would be forbidden, thus affecting revenue for the advertisers and the website.

Even those who do not hold themselves accountable to downloading and accessing unpaid content will still be affected.

Wikipedia is a common website many students use as an instant source of information. The reason professors advise against using the website is the same reason that it would be affected – anyone can add information to any page. Thus, illegal and unpaid content could easily be placed on the site, ultimately causing the site to be held accountable.

Search engines are also mentioned in the bill. Like Internet providers, search engines will have to take all feasible steps to prevent the foreign infringing sites from being directly linked as a result of a search.

To protest the bill, Wikipedia shut down its services for 24 hours last Wednesday. Other websites also participated in the protest, like Google, which blacked out their home page logo, aiming to get their frequent users to take note of the bill and take action.

For or against the bills, it is important that you voice your opinion to your U.S.

Congress representative as soon as possible. To identify your representative go to         www.writerep.house.gov  and enter your zip code. From there, a page will load where you can locate your representative. For the Richland community, your congressman is Sam

Johnson. Send him an email regarding your view on the bills.

It only takes a minute to voice your

opinion.