SOPA and PIPA were proposed legislation in 2012 that grabbed tech headlines for months. What were the issues (connected to our Chapter 6 reading) and what is their current status? Maximum 2 students may choose this topic.
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), introduced in the House of Representatives, and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), introduced in the Senate, were bills designed for the purpose of regulating and preventing the distribution and downloading of illegally copyrighted material on the internet. While many applauded the intentions of the bills, it was widely agreed that the methods which the legislation allowed to regulate these activities were extremely misguided and resulted in massive online protests from some of the biggest companies on the web. The reason the internet community had such a problem with these bills was because it would allow the government to monitor the internet and potentially shut down a website if it had any links to any site that sold or made available illegally copyrighted material. This could result in the shut down of sites like Google or Facebook every time someone posts a video with a song in it or a clip from a movie. The massive online protests actually resulted in killing the bill, but that did not end the debate. Internet piracy is still an issue and there will probably be more legislation in the future addressing this problem.
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SOPA and PIPA Intellectual property, and Lab days with Shawn pdf.
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