On Jan. 18, approximately 75,000 web domains, including the American-version of Wikipedia and Reddit, effectively blacked out in protest of what is arguably the greatest legislative threat to web content since the advent of the Internet: the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act. We are extremely heartened by uprisings and protests against these bills.
SOPA and PIPA were designed to prevent international websites from hosting copyrighted material. While in this case they apply primarily to digital piracy, they would also apply to counterfeit merchandise.
Our generation of college students, raised in the digital age, has worked to transform the Internet into an unprecedented locus of endless knowledge, creative power and disseminated information. The protest was effective in garnering support against the bills by highlighting the very problem that SOPA and PIPA would create. Our generation in particular cannot fathom the consequences of having limited Internet access — losing Wikipedia and some other sites for just a few days underscored how heavily we rely on information from all corners of the Internet.
Fundamentally, the ideas behind SOPA and PIPA are not unreasonable, nor are they an infringement on civil rights. From a macroeconomic perspective, the act of piracy at its purest is a cesspool of dead capital. According to CBS News, "intellectual property-intensive sectors employ more than 19 million people in the U.S. and create $7.7 trillion in gross output." These numbers would also inextricably rise with the passing of SOPA and PIPA, whereas piracy undoubtedly hurts the American economy and the piracy-affected industries in particular (i.e. music). At a more micro and moral level, individuals are obviously entitled to the profits and ownership that they deserve. Piracy is a criminal act that has caused real damage to countless artists, actors and software developers. This will only get worse as more aspects of our lives enter the digital age.
That said, these bills greatly threaten the pursuit of knowledge and the distribution of information — hallmarks of an educated, informed and innovative population. They are massive impediments to academic research, creative expression and communication through the Internet global community.
Perhaps most disconcerting is the bills' undefined level of regulation. Even those committing benign and isolated acts, such as recording a popular song on YouTube, would be subject to a felony and prison time. In place of an egalitarian culture based on the vibrant sharing of ideas, SOPA and PIPA would impose chilling degrees of corporate control on cyberspace.
Young people led the charge against SOPA and PIPA namely through the Internet, whether with petitions or protesting through popular ‘college-age' websites like Facebook. In the face of this public backlash, politicians have directly changed their stances based on these blackouts, and the legislation was held for further revision.
While SOPA and PIPA have been shelved for the time being, this is just the beginning of pushback — particularly by older generations — against the greatest information-sharing tool the world has ever seen. It is up to our generation, a generation that has grown up with the Internet and knows its democratic, educative and expressive capabilities, to protect it from restriction.
Editorials are written by The Herald's editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
