SOPA or Stop Online Piracy Act is a bill that could potentially change the way we view the internet today. As its name suggests, SOPA intends to cut online piracy, however, by allowing the copyright holder to seek court orders against websites accused of copyright infringement.
The problem is is that the bill is so broad that it means any site that hosts items that infringe copyright or any site that has the potential to host copyrighted material can be taken to court and possibly shut down. This includes sites like YouTube, Facebook, Reddit, Tumblr and Photobucket among many others. Even Wikipedia could infringe copyright according to SOPA.
Copyrighted material also includes the little things like song covers or the song that you accidentally recorded while filming outside meaning that if these sites don't shut down, large parts of it will. Although we might be thinking that this won't affect us, it will. Many of these websites have their servers in the U.S.
PIPA or Protect IP act gives copyright holders additional powerrs to stop online piracy. This bill is equaly bad as it is meant to be a fail-safe if SOPA doesn't succeed.
SOPA and PIPA violates the First Amendment, free speech and will likely cripple the internet and stifle growth and innovation. I'm not the best at explaining so I will leave you Totalbiscuit's explanation which is way better than mine.
and on a lighter note:
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