What is Wrong With SOPA and PIPA

OK, this post has nothing to do with footwear or fitness, nor does it deal with improving your health. However I felt that I had to comment on SOPA and PIPA to help to explain why this new legislation is so bad.

PROTESTS ABOUT SOPA AND PIPA ARE NOT ABOUT ALLOWING INTERNET PIRACY

To the casual observer it would appear that the opposition to these bills is coming from software pirates and illegal downloaders, who are objecting to their illegal file sharing being made more difficult. However this is not the case. Besides,SOPA and PIPA will not stop people from illegally downloading, and it will be just as easy to do so if this legislation is passed (more about that later)

The problem with SOPA and PIPA is how it will change the internet, and what powers will be given to control how the internet operates. You see it is not what this legislation sets out to stop, but the phraseology of the legislation that is the problem. The legislation is very loose about the steps which will be possible if this legislation comes into effect. Politicians may well claim that they would not introduce legislation that prevents freedom of expression on the internet, but that is exactly what this bill will make perfectly legal. If these bills are passed in their current forms, we will all have to rely on politicians to stick to their words, when the law will be quite clear that they do not need to.

But we all know that politicians are honest and have integrity right? I mean Barack Obama has done everything that he claimed that he would do right? Guantanamo Bay after all is now closed, there is a healthcare system in the USA that all Americans can be proud of, military action was authorized in Libya after congressional approval, Sudan was brought to justice for genocide in Darfur, and NASA’s manned space missions are still alive and kicking right? Exactly.

Now with a law in place that makes u-turns perfectly legal, you can see why there is such concern is about this new legislation.

Similarities With The Criminal Justice Bill (1994) in the UK

Cast your minds back a few years to when John Major was in power in the UK. Youngsters up and down the country were reveling at outdoor parties and raves (how terrible!). This freedom needed to be curbed according to the government, and new laws were required to curb trespassing an illegal partying. The police needed more power. Enter The Criminal Justice Bill. The Criminal Justice Bill (1994) was ‘conceived to stop illegal raves and parties’, and the bill gave the police new powers to stop potential revelers and prevent them from organizing raves and outdoor parties. The youth were up in arms about the invasion of civil liberties; however it was the extent of this bill that was the real problem, and not what appeared at face value to be a legitimate addition into UK law (apparently).

The phraseology of this bill was of course the problem, as it gave the police the power to stop (and search) and disband anyone who they believed was going to hold an outdoor party. This meant that more than two people (I.E 3 people) together with a music system, could be potential ravers who could be stopped. The bill made it illegal for three people to meet in a park with a music system, and that the police were given powers to disband them or even arrest them, for that became illegal. Of course we can all rely on the discretion of the police not to abuse any powers that they are given.

The law meant that a birthday party could be disbanded, and was illegal under the new legislation. According to a very good article in The Guardian….

The legislation “can now be used to foreclose a birthday party” and this “should serve as a stark warning to those currently considering a raft of other illiberal legislation”.

When legislation gives excessive powers to the state, those powers will eventually be used. When hard-won liberties are stripped away with a stroke of the monarch’s pen, they may never return.

Those of us who organized against the criminal justice bill back in 1994 may have been disorganized and disheveled. We may have been idealistic, and we may have been naive. But for all that, we were right

Read the full article

So What Does This New SOPA and PIPA Legislation Actually Mean?

I think you have already got my point, so I would like to take this opportunity to introduce a video. It explains the problems with SOPA and PIPA far more eloquently that I can put it, besides it uses video and that is better than text on this occasion.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

You should be opposed to this bill if you like your freedom, and even if you think that illegal downloaders should be brought to justice. Us protesters do not want to allow people to break the law, nor to be able to steal web content, movies, files and music without consequences. We want the legislation to be changed and/or the vocabulary to be tightened up. None of us trust politicians to stick to their word, and to quote the Guardian again…

“When legislation gives excessive powers to the state, those powers will eventually be used”

And finally, will this legislation actually stop illegal downloaders? Of course it wont!

Why will it not work?

Because you will still be able to access the sites which will be banned or shut down, by typing in the IP address of the site rather than the domain name. As such this bill will do nothing to stop what it actually sets out to do.

So what is left?

A whole host of new laws to allow governments (not just the USA) to have some worrying powers when it comes to the internet.

Now, tell me that the loose wording of the legislation is not deliberate.

Tagged as: criminal justice bill 1994, internet freedom, pipa, sopa, what is wrong with pipa, what is wrong with sopa