The Internet Goes On Strike

If you had an essay due last week, you may have been frustrated when you tried to go on Wikipedia and found it inaccessible. Wikipedia was the biggest player in what was called the largest Internet protest in history, staged Wednesday, Jan. 18. Wikipedia was joined by other major websites, such as social news site Reddit, in blacking out their sites in protest of a pair of bills that threatened to change the Internet as you know it.

The protests took place in opposition of H.R. 3261, better known as the 'Stop Online Piracy Act,' and its Senate counterpart, the 'PROTECT IP Act.' (The IP stands for 'intellectual property' – basically copyrighted ideas.) SOPA and PIPA, as they're commonly referred to, have been met with heavy opposition from both the users and operators of major websites, who say that the bills as written could kill the Internet in its current form, forcing beloved Web outlets like YouTube, Facebook, and Wikipedia to either neuter their sites or shut down entirely.

Two days after the online protests took place, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that "In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday's vote" on PIPA. The House did the same, indefinitely postponing any vote on SOPA, both heartening signs that a good old-fashioned protest can still affect political change.

Although the defeat of the bills was greeted with cheers from all corners of the Internet, not everyone was feeling the love – especially the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Artists of America (RIAA), the two biggest proponents of the measures. Both organizations came out and attacked the organizers of the protests. "You've got an opponent who has the capacity to reach millions of people with a click of a mouse and there's no fact-checker. They can say whatever they want," said the MPAA's chief, Chris Dodd. The RIAA's Cary Sherman also lamented the defeat of the bills, saying that "It's very difficult to counter the misinformation when the disseminators also own the platform."

Most Americans were completely unaware that Congress was in the process of drafting legislation that could have shut down most of our information culture's most beloved websites. As Google's director of public policy, Bob Boorstin said, "YouTube would just go dark immediately. It couldn't function." Any site that allowed user-submitted content – including sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Wikipedia – would have been handcuffed by the new legislation, which effectively required sites to monitor all submissions to their site for infringing content (or links to sites that provided infringing content) lest they be labeled a "rogue site."

SOPA and PIPA were written with the intent of curbing online piracy, along with the manufacture and sale of counterfeit goods, as they would have given the U.S. Government the means to shut down websites that infringe on American intellectual property laws even if they operated outside of U.S. jurisdiction. Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX), who introduced the bill to the House, said in a statement that, "Because the U.S. produces the most intellectual property, our nation has the most to lose if we fail to address the problem of rogue sites. The Stop Online Piracy Act stops foreign rogue websites from taking jobs and profits away from America's innovators."

According to Google, one of SOPA and PIPA's largest opponents, the bills could have allowed the U.S. Government to "order the blocking of sites using methods similar to those employed by China." This refers to one of the most contentious provisions of SOPA, which would have fundamentally changed the Domain Name System on which the Internet relies to function normally.

Although the DNS blocking provisions were removed from the bill after public outcry, SOPA retained sections which allowed the government to compel ad networks, search engines, and credit card payment processors to cut ties with any website it deemed to be 'rogue,' effectively censoring sites by forcing them off the 'Net via the throttling of their income and traffic.

Thanks to the thousands who signed petitions, called their congresspeople, or took part in online and offline demonstrations, the Internet remains relatively free today. Still, it seems inevitable that the RIAA, MPAA and similar organizations will not rest until getting the legislation they want passed through Congress. There are now widespread calls for an investigation after MPAA boss Chris Dodd – himself a former Senator from Connecticut – threatened lawmakers with the end of Hollywood campaign contributions if they fail to vote the way the content industry wants, saying on Fox News, "Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake."

The battle over SOPA and PIPA consisted only of the first few volleys of a war between the content industry and Internet users that can do nothing but ratchet up in intensity as the Web becomes an ever more integral part of our everyday lives. For now, though, feel free to upload your funny cat pictures in peace.