On January 18th, you would have noticed people on Internet speaking about Online Piracy...SOPA... PIPA...wikipedia blackout..several other major websites protest on SOPA and PIPA..!!!
I would like to furnish a brief overview on the Heads and tails of the Issue..SOPA and PIPA Acts
What is SOPA and PIPA and what are they supposed to do!!!
SOPA Stands for Stop Online Piracy Act and PIPA stands for Protect IP Act. These definitions gives us an idea that these were the laws setup inorder to stop online Piracy and protect copyright laws.
YES!!!They came about in order to kill piracy online, as the entertainment industry is obviously not excited that many people are downloading their products without payment or permission.
But in Real world affairs, These laws were acting in a negative style. Both SOPA and PIPA put power in the hands of the entertainment industry to censor sites that allegedly engage in copyright infringement.
How distinct are these from current existing copyright laws
We already have such copywrite protecting laws.If infringing content is found, rights holders already have the Digital Millenium Copyright Act(DMCA) to help them request the legal removal of that content. They also have the ability to charge the infringers for damages caused.
Why Wikipedia and other master websites on internet were opposing and how does these acts affect them.
SOPA and PIPA provide a means to censor the tool that provided a means for the infringing content to exist on the internet rather than the content itself. This puts a lot of power in the hands of rights holders and has significant potential for abuse.
There is incredible opposition to these bills from many major giant organizations like Wikipedia, Google, and Reddit. Etc... because these laws don't just affect users like us, or SMB's(Small and Medium Business Units) but even very large companies with a large venture in the great things the internet and modern technology have to offer.
As a result of the protests held by the organizations, Government held these laws from being passed as of now.
Will try to provide you any update in future..