Much has been written over the last few days about the horrors of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Dominic Basulto, writing in the Washington Post notes that the debate over SOPA sends an “ugly message” to the rest of the world about the US:

“Imagine a country where the government is able to shut down Web sites at the slightest provocation, where elected representatives invoke fears of “overseas pirates” to defend the interests of domestic industries, and where Internet companies like Google must cave in to the demands of government censors or risk being shut down.

No, we are not talking about China, North Korea or Iran — we are talking about the United States, where legislators in both the House and Senate are attempting to push through new anti-piracy legislation by year-end that would benefit Hollywood at the expense of Silicon Valley.”

Introduced by Lamar Smith (R-TX) and heavily supported by the entertainment industry, the act would give federal authorities new power to block service providers, search engines, payment processors, and advertising networks it considers to be facilitating illegal online activity, such as streaming pirated television programs, films or selling pharmaceuticals. Key lobbyists in favor of the bill are the Motion Picture Association of America, media firms, pharmaceutical companies, and the US Chamber of Commerce.

Opponents, including Internet giants Google, Twitter, eBay and Facebook, as well as a host of public interest groups, say the legislation lays the groundwork for online censorship. The law, they point out, could shut down law-abiding websites when, for example, users post links to infringing websites.

The tide may be turning against the Stop Online Piracy Act, as both Nancy Pelosi and Darrell Issa have come out against passage.

“Need to find a better solution than #SOPA #DontBreak-TheInternet,” the liberal Democratic House leader tweeted on Thursday, in response to a tweeter who asked: “Where do you stand on Internet censoring and #SOPA?”

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 struck a careful division of labor after years of negotiation. SOPA dismantles DMCA overnight, cutting off websites from payment and ad services without even a judge’s review, solely on the basis of a rights holder’s allegations, choking off income until they wither on the vine and die off.

The argument for the need of the SOPA is to protect creativity and intellectual property rights; what threatens to take place instead appears to be the exact opposite, simply giving Hollywood and our government license to censor the Internet as they please.
In essence, this is bad news for small websites as well as social media providers like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr. These sites could potentially be held responsible for what their users post; that means uploading an amateur remixes or fan videos could be construed as copyright infringement. Websites like SoundCloud or Bandcamp, which often stream entire albums uploaded by artists themselves, could be seen as sites dealing in piracy to corporations that don’t know any better.

The Huffington Post astutely pointed out the legal nightmares that could ensue from the passage of SOPA. Our current legal system is already struggling to keep up with the rapid evolution of technology. This bill is poised to make things worse, and the possibility for abuse is limitless.

These bills represent a major blow to openness and freedom on the Internet, free speech rights, and the fabric of the Internet itself. If SOPA is allowed to pass, the Internet and free speech will never be the same again, we’ll wake up to find sites we love blocked by the our government. It is time to tell Congress to vote NO on SOPA.