The companion bills SOPA and PIPA, introduced to Congress in 2011 recently created much online controversy.
This legislation is designed to crack down on the pirated products in America by restricting internet sites, particularly those originating outside the United States, from selling or distributing pirated or copyrighted material.
The controversy concerns the bill’s definition of what a “domestic Internet site” is and what it is not. A domestic site would be a site that has an American domain name or IP address—one that was registered in the United States.
Sites with addresses such as .com, .net, or .org would all be appropriate to use under the bill, even if the site itself is hosted on servers from other countries. Commonly used sites such as Wikipedia’s Wikileaks.org would be categorized as “domestic” even though they are not hosted domestically.
On the other hand, sites with non-domestic addresses, even if hosted in the United States, will be unusable under the bill.
Opponents of the bills claim that government “censorship” of what users see online will make it more difficult to complete searches and information gathering. They say that internet companies would monitor everything users upload or they warn of the constant use of potential lawsuits.
Students, including junior IB student Sam Ezersky, disagree with the bill, citing that it will create obstacles while conducting research.
“If SOPA and PIPA are passed, it will be much harder to do my research,” said Ezersky. “More sites will be blocked and therefore it will take longer for me to find enough information to complete my work.”
The bills have been put on hold and a new act, referred to as OPEN, was created after the controversy.