Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PIPA Blackout on January 18

Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protec IP Act (PIPA) are two anti-piracy bills which are currently in the US Congress. Some popular websites will be gone for 24 hours–specifically on January 18–to protest against the said bills.

But what are PIPA and SOPA anyway?

PIPA stands for PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011), also known as Senate Bill 968 or S. 968. It is a proposed law with the stated goal of giving the US government and copyright holders additional tools to curb access to “rogue websites dedicated to infringing or counterfeit goods”, especially those registered outside the U.S. The bill was introduced on May 12, 2011 by Senator Patrick Leahy and 11 bipartisan co-sponsors. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that implementation of the bill would cost the federal government $47 million through 2016, to cover enforcement costs and the hiring and training of 22 new special agents and 26 support staff. The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the bill, but Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) placed a hold on it.

SOPA, on the other hand, stands for Stop Online Piracy Act, also known as House Bill 3261 or H.R. 3261. It is a bill that was introduced in the US Congress on October 26, 2011, by House Judiciary Committee Chair Representative Lamar Smith and a bipartisan group of 12 initial co-sponsors. The bill, if made law, would expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Presented to the House Judiciary Committee, it builds on the similar PRO-IP Act of 2008 and the corresponding Senate bill, the PROTECT IP Act.

SOPA and PIPA are both anti-piracy bills. SOPA is the House of Representative’s version (House Bill HR. 3261), while PIPA is the senate’s version (Senate Bill S. 968). Both SOPA and PIPA are aiming to prosecute rogue websites in and outside of US that infringes music, movies and other intellectual property rights. A good example of such sites are The Pirate Bay and eDonkey.

Companies like Reddit and Wikipedia will go black on January 18 to protest against SOPA and PIPA because they think it will give enormous power to the government to censor the internet.

Google and Facebook are also against the sibling bills but they will not join the blackout, as well as Twitter.

Image courtesy of dailykos.com