Pros and cons of SOPA/PIPA in web industry

Today, the web world is shaking after a major earthquake namely PIPA and SOPA. The environment of web industry is hot as many giant industries acting together, some of them are in support and some of them are in against of it.  Action pack drama since last few days has been creating interest of people like blackout of Wikipedia, Mark Zuckerberg’s post and many more.  As we are part of this industry, we need to know at least few basics of concern issue.

What is PIPA?

PIPA stands for Protect Intellectual Property Act. Itwas first introduced to US Senate On May 12, 2011. The major four issues covered in PIPA is,

• US internet service providers can be forced to block the access of websites that found to infringement the Copyright act.
• Legal actions can be taken by suing against search engines, blog directories, directories or any other websites if black listed websites not removed from their list.
• Force advertising agencies to stop advertising of such black listed websites.
• Companies will have the power to sue on the websites which they found doing so and to preventing infringement.

What is SOPA?

SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act, which was introduced first on October 26, 2011. SOPA is intently made to work parallel with PIPA. The major three issues included in SOPA is,

• The US Attorney General can request court  order to bar advertising agencies, search engines, payment processors or any other parties which are conducting business of black listed websites.
• Companies can compose a list of websites those are violating their Copyright act and can give the legal notice to the parties stated above to stop doing so. If those not take any further steps in five days then can take them down.
• If payment facility provider has strong reasons against such black listed websites, then they will have the power to cut all services.

Who are the supporters?

It’s easy to understand that the entertainment industry is the main supporters as they claim piracy and copyright thieves cost industry more than $5.5 billion a year.  Few main among them are Motion Picture association of America, Recording Industry Association of America, Ford motors, NBA(National Basketball Association) etc. The second major industry in support of PIPA and SOPA is Pharmaceutical Industry. According to their claim they loose billions to internet drug sellers and it also cost the people’s health as they are harmful.

Who are against PIPA and SOPA?

All Social media companies, search engines, directories, web promotion companies etc are against it. It is also understandable that social media websites would be the main victims if bill passes as so many people share illegal contents on those websites and will be shut down according to law. It is next to impossible to remove such websites from search engines and directories. The major among them are Google, Yahoo!, Wikipedia Foundation, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, LinkdIn, eBay, Mozila Corporation etc. They are running a protest named “SAVE THE INTERNET”.

How it will affect our lives?

As Social media websites shut down, the effect can’t be explained by words as we know that Social media becomes integral part of our lives. On the other side, we can think that many spoiling the Internet world and it should be stopped if possible. Today we always fear about use of Internet by our children as there are so many illegal contents can be accessed easily. Think Pros and Cons of PIPA/SOPA, express your thought as comments.