The past twelve months have seen new rise to revolution. When tyrannical, out-of-touch leaders refused to drop the reigns in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, the people took to the streets and toppled the administration.
When a Canadian-based organization utilized all of its resources to highlight the drastic inequity of wealth disbursement, protestors occupied cities, parks and college campuses all across the world, demanding change. When Bank of America and Verizon flexed their corporate strong arms and implemented unwarranted fees for previously free services, customers rallied against them or took their business elsewhere.
This was the year of the people, the year of taking it all back. And the acquisition of information, primarily via the Internet, has been instrumental in every step of the process. Information and its rampant spread through the masses have served as a weapon, a catalyst and a foundation on which to “fight the power.”
However, in 2012, the flow of information might come to a screeching halt due to seemingly Orwellian legislation. SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, is a proposed bill that is making its way through Congress and is presently under review by the House Judiciary Committee. If enacted, SOPA and its counterpart in the Senate, PROTECT-IP ACT (PIPA) would elevate the ability of the U.S. Department of Justice to fight the online trafficking of copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.
At first glance, this sounds like it would actually be beneficial for the creative industries. Before Steve Jobs “saved the music industry” by determining that a song is only worth 99 cents per download, record labels and Hollywood were witnessing an incomprehensible drop in sales due to online piracy of their product.
The jurisdiction of SOPA far exceeds its reach and threatens to shut down sites for unknowingly distributing or failing to immediately prevent the spread of pirated material. In other words, YouTube could be unavailable in the U.S. and face harsh penalties every time someone uploads a video containing copyrighted music, images or footage of which they do not own the rights. Uploading clips from movies or television shows to your Facebook timeline could essentially land you in jail for a minimum five-year sentence.
As one group that opposes the bill, Fight For the Future, breaks it down, even Justin Bieber could potentially face prison time for his covers of Usher songs that got him discovered in the first place. Blogging sites that serve as unintentional superhighways of “pirated” material like Tumblr, Reddit and Pinterest could cease to exist entirely.
SOPA is being met with a fierce opposition from the technology industry and the collective Internet community. The founders of Google, Facebook and Reddit, among other tech demi-gods, have spoken out publicly against the legislation, relating it to an infringement on freedom of expression and freedom of speech.
This Wednesday, beginning at 12 a.m. EST, Wikipedia and a slew of other Internet heavyweights have pledged to “go dark.” These sites will go offline for 24 hours as Congress is slated to vote on the bill after much delay and redrafting. As a peaceful protest, their usual content will be replaced for the day by a graphic that offers visitors to these sites more information on the bill and what they believe to be potential scenarios should it be enacted.
In an age that moves at a speed measurable only in megabytes per second, this legislation could have profound changes to the way we educate our youth, obtain information, and go about our daily lives.
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