SOPA & PIPA have grabbed the attention all the tech-nerds in tech-arena. Both are a pair of anti-piracy bills that have been crafted to tackle the problem of foreign-based websites, selling pirated movies, music and other products. The two bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act & the Protect IP Act are very controversial and on being law would surely change the digital landscape.
What is SOPA?
SOPA will be concentrating on copyright violation by keeping tab on the access to sites that host pirated content. Its chief targets are "rogue" overseas websites such as torrent hub The Pirate Bay that works as a trove for prohibited downloads of movies and other digital content.
SOPA will also be cutting off pirate sites' oxygen, by asking for U.S. search engines, advertising networks and other vendors to hold back their services. This means the flagged sites will now not be shown in search results of sites like Google, and there won’t be payment processors from sites like eBay’s PayPal.
The House and Senate both are agreed on this move, but opponents oppose by saying that SOPA promotes censorship and is stuffed with the potential for unintentional consequences.
SOPA goes beyond DMCA and make site operators to look for content being uploaded by users. A website is a SOPA scofflaw if it has "deliberate action to avoid confirming a high probability" that its service can be utilized for copyright violation. That kind of marshy language has lead the tech-firms spooked.
Who supports SOPA, and who's against it?
The controversial pair of bills has ignited an all-out war between Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Generally, media companies favor the bills in one voice, whereas tech's big names are opposing them with their full might.
SOPA's supporters are of the opinion that online piracy will cause job losses in the U.S. job as it takes away content creators of income.
The bill's supporters don’t support censorship accusations by saying that the legislation is meant to give a face-lift to a broken system that does not amply prevent criminal behavior. But SOPA's critics are of the opinion that the bill's supporters do not take in the Internet's architecture, and so do not value the complicacies of the legislation they are mulling over.
Where does the bill stand now?
SOPA is being extensively reworked after a huge pushback from tech firms and their supporters. The bill would change a lot from day to day.