SOPA/PIPA: Catalysts For Democratic Participation

Anyone using the internet within the past week surely noticed quite a bit of talk about PIPA and SOPA, the Senate and House bills designed to curb online piracy.

Each of these proposals was, initially, heavily supported by both Democrats and Republicans. However, because of a huge viral push Americans all over learned about the bills and voiced opposition towards them. What exactly would the bills have done? More importantly, what does this united rejection mean?

Before addressing the outpour of rejection Americans voiced last week, it must be understood exactly what was so foul about the bills in the first place. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protecting Intellectual Property Act) were both born out of necessitation. Piracy websites, both domestic and abroad, wrongfully steal copyrighted and trademarked material and unlawfully post it on wikis and forums.

Where the two acts, which originally had support from almost every member of the Senate and House of Representatives, went wrong, however, is how broad their classification of illegal online activity was.

Under the planned statutes, websites such as Wikipedia, Reddit.com, and YouTube would not be possible because normal users would be unable to upload any content. There would be substantial red tape to overcome in order to be a contributor to the online communities such as the aforementioned sites. This is the antithesis of what the internet has stood for in the past two decades and for what it strives to be in the future. The World Wide Web has and should remain a space where individuals can share and discuss issues freely.

Luckily it will most likely remain this way. Many popular websites pushed users to contact their respective Congressperson or Senator and to tell them they opposed SOPA and PIPA. Normally suggestions like this go unnoticed by surfers of the net, but this time it was different. Offices on Capitol Hill received two to three times more phone calls last week than they normally do—and almost all of them involved SOPA/PIPA.

This action bodes well for internet freedom, but also for the democratic process as a whole. Because of all these phone calls, letters, and e-mails, a substantial amount of Congressman now oppose it (almost a 6 to 1 ratio) and a slight majority of Senators oppose it. Interestingly enough, it also appears to be a bipartisan issue. About the same percentage of Republicans and Democrats fall on either side of the issue.

Now that Americans have seen what difference a united opposition to an overly intervening bill can have, hopefully it will become a more common occurrence in the years to come.

- Kit

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January 26th, 2012 | Dan | Comments Off |