2. 2
Michael Punzo
Professor Newman
MISM 3303 – VC05
27 April 2012
SOPA and PIPA: Internet Piracy or Censorship
Twenty years ago when one heard the word piracy, they thought of pirates and
the open seas. What is piracy? According to Webster's dictionary, piracy is : “an act of
robbery on the high seas; also : an act resembling such robbery or the unauthorized
use of another's production, invention, or conception especially in infringement of a
copyright.” (Webster’s Dictionary) However, in present day and time when we hear the
word piracy, most all too often, it refers to “internet piracy.” In an effort to thwart internet
piracy, the government has once again gotten involved. Oftentimes, when the federal
government gets involved, nothing good will come of it. James Madison, founding
father, said "If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are
the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, … they may take into their own
hands the education of children, ... they may assume the provision of the poor; they
may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, every thing,
from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police,
would be thrown under the power of Congress. ... Were the power of Congress to be
established in the latitude it was contended for, it would subvert the very foundations,
3. 3
and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of
America." (Liberty-Tree) Even without the invention of the internet we see Madison’s
insight in allowing the government to take control. The U. S. Government has created
two separate but equal bills to control what they call piracy; or is it just a new measure
of censorship?
In 1997, Shawn Fanning created a peer-to-peer file sharing program called
Napster. Fanning developed an idea of sharing music, as he talked with friends about
the difficulties of finding the kind of MP3 (music) files they were interested in. MP3 is a
digitally encoded MPEG audio file. MP3 is an acronym derived from an acronym short
for "MPEG Audio-Layer 3". This is an acronym that stands for "Motion Picture Experts
Group" (the name of the organization that invented the format). This program
emphasized the ability to share any audio files over any internet connection. These MP3
files were copied from various musicians’ cds and then placed in a folder, on the
computer, to be shared online. The problem in using this format for some people, was
the music was copyrighted and was not to be shared. (King)
Shawn Fanning’s Napster was shut down in July 2001 after rock band Metallica
discovered their track “I Disappear” had been circulated before it was even released.
Eventually, the track made its way to local radio stations across the country bringing
more attention to Napster. One year later in a monumental case, A&M RECORDS V
NAPSTER, (U.S. Court of Appeals) the Ninth Circuit Court, out of California, shut down
Napster permanently.This was the first big case against internet piracy. According to
WiseGeek.com, “ Internet Piracy is the unlawful reproduction and/or distribution of any
copyrighted digital file that can change hands over the Internet.” This can be done with
4. 4
music files, videos and movies, e-books, software, and other materials. Those who
engage in Internet piracy can often conduct their entire operation on the Internet,
including advertising and sales. (WiseGeek)
A&M Records v Napster could be considered the pandora’s box of internet
piracy. It wasn’t long after the Ninth Circuit Court made their historical decision involving
internet piracy that other cases started popping up around the United States. In the
hallmark case of the State of New Jersey v. Shirley Reid, users’ rights to privacy were
being attacked. The case involved a dispute about whether an Internet Service Provider
(ISP) violated a user’s privacy rights by releasing a subscriber’s information (name,
address, billing details) associated with a particular IP address. The RIAA (Recording
Industry Association of America) thought they could bypass the courts and serve
subpoenas that were issued by a clerk, not a judge. These subpoenas were
regargarding ISPs. The subpoenas were issued to force them to hand over personal
information from internet users that the RIAA had accused of downloading illegal copies
of copyrighted music that was stored on the customer's personal computer. When
certain ISPs refused to comply with the RIAA, then they tried suing the ISP to enforce
the subpoena. (Weitzner)
In RIAA v. Verizon, the RIAA submitted a subpoena to Verizon demanding that
they turn over the identities of subscribers who they thought were in violation of internet
piracy laws (storing copyrighted material on their personal computers). The RIAA
prepared lawsuits against not only the subscriber (sharer), but their parents and
grandparents as well. In December of 2003, the verdict of the courts favored Internet
users’ rights which delivered a blow to the RIAA and their anti-piracy crusade. (Verizon)
5. 5
It has been a constant battle over internet privacy. Most recently, the United
States Federal Government got involved. This is not the first time the federal
government has gotten involved in matters of the state. This time, both the Senate and
the House have introduced bills to prevent or at least curb internet piracy. The two bills
that have been introduced are the Stop Online Piracy Act, known as SOPA, in the
House and the sister legislation called the Protect IP [Intellectual Property] Act, or PIPA,
in the Senate.
How would SOPA work? According to Declan McCullagh from Cnet “SOPA
would allow the U.S. attorney general to seek a court order against the targeted
offshore Web site that would, in turn, be served on Internet providers in an effort to
make the target virtually disappear. It's kind of an “Internet death penalty.” Google,
Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, eBay, Mozilla, Yahoo, AOL, and LinkedIn composed a letter
to certain members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, saying SOPA
poses "a serious risk to our industry's continued track record of innovation and job
creation, as well as to our nation's cybersecurity." (PC World) Again piracy or
censorship? Is internet piracy a bigger threat to the American government or is it an
opposing party’s view? The federal government has set their sites on the American
public, yet have ignored the virtual threat from opposing nations.
PIPA or Protect Intellectual Property Act would require search engines, along
with domain name providers, as well as various other internet companies to “block
access” to web sites that have been “accused” of piracy. According to 1st Web Designer
Blog, here are some examples of what PIPA can do:
● Force U.S. internet providers to block access to websites deemed as enablers
6. 6
of copyright infringement
● Seek legal action by suing search engines, blog sites, directories, or any site in
general to have the black listed sites removed from their website
● Will be able to force advertising services on infringing websites, and those
supporting of them, to remove them from their advertising accounts
● Companies will also have the power to sue any new websites that get started
after this bill is passed, if they believe that they are not doing a good job of
preventing infringement on your website (Newman)
Most recently, the arrest of Kim Dotcom (a.k.a Kim Schmitz), founder of
Megaupload, has strengthened the case for enforcing copyright laws. Schmitz/Dotcom’s
website, Megaupload, was allowing over 180 million of its registered users to upload
and download movies, television shows, and music. The FBI acted on Megaupload at
the urging of Hollywood and publishing and recording industries, who claim that through
internet piracy, it’s costing Americans over 100,000 in jobs. Even though the internet
piracy laws, which the federal government is trying to pass, would possibly prevent sites
such as Megaupload, it would also affect sites such as Google and YouTube for
copyright infringement. Julian Sanchez of the Cato Institute said “The International
Intellectual Property Alliance—a kind of mega-trade association for all the content
industries, and a zealous prophet of the piracy apocalypse, released a report back in
November meant to establish that copyright industries are so economically valuable that
they merit more vigorous government protection.” Sanchez also goes after the claim
that because of internet piracy Hollywood and the music industry are losing jobs. He
says “ The ‘core copyright industries’ have, unsurprisingly, shed some jobs over the
7. 7
past few years, but again, compared with the rest of the economy, employment seems
to have held relatively stable at a time when you might expect cash-strapped
consumers to be turning to piracy to save money.”
Both bills would affect not only blog sites, but also such sites as YouTube. Stop
and think where new ideas are introduced and brought to fruition - online. Where would
the internet user be without Wikipedia, Google, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. If these
bills are passed the next great Justin Bieber just might not be discovered.
Both SOPA and PIPA resembles the firewall of China or the censorship in Iran.
By creating these bills the U.S. is slowly moving towards what it claims to have always
opposed; that being, taking away of our core freedoms. It’s vague, yet stiff language,
broad definition, such as that of “willful infringement”, and the introduction of felony
penalties for content posted is what makes these bills dangerous..
I feel these bills have been created for the sole purpose of greed, power and
control. If you look at the senator or congressman that is supporting these bills you will
also see who is supporting him and his reelection. If these bills are passed, what once
was considered a prosperous nation with freedoms, will become much like other third
world countries. The black market will become even more popular. Before too long it
won’t be just movies and music, but food that will be available on the black market. By
creating a cyber police, another branch/arm of the federal government, we are making
the George Orwell movie “1984” come to reality. The city of Chicago is already
monitoring your every movement with police cameras in just about every neighborhood.
New York City, Houston, Tampa Bay and many other metropolis’ are using drone
8. 8
planes to keep the ever watching eye over the public. We see that with every move the
President makes and Congress makes we lose a little bit of freedom with it. It’s like
cooking a frog; you place it in the pot of water and then slowly turn up the heat. It’s not
long until the frog is cooked and he has become your dinner, never knowing what
happened. “Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of government]
those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into
tyranny.” - Thomas Jefferson
Even though both PIPA and SOPA have taken a back burner in both the House
and the Senate, this battle for control is far from being over. In January 2012, Wikipedia
changed the look of their site in protest of these bills by going black. Google followed
suit by placing a black band around their logo. Mozilla mimicked Wikipedia and went
black as well. This action taken by these websites will most certainly not stop this
legislation in their quest to censor, gain control or to manipulate the public’s opinion,
but it was an effort that drew attention to these bills. What China is slowly walking away
from we are rapidly walking into. For decades, China has created a tight reign over its
people by dictating to them what they are to eat, what they are to watch, how many
children they can have, how many children of a certain gender they are allowed to have,
what they can say and when they can say it. In other words, total government
involvement and control. Those who study and read their history know this has been
done many times before and failed. The same measures, just in a somewhat different
form, were passed under Adolf Hitler prior to WWII. It is not just these two bills that pose
a threat to our freedom, but the very core of Congress that created these bills. We must
fix the system itself in order to prevent such ridiculous legislation to pass. If we do not
9. 9
act to preserve our freedom, then how close are we to the book/ story of “1982” and
“Fahrenheit 454?” Do not fall prey to exaggerated media, but rather find out for yourself
what fate awaits us if these so called “anti-piracy” bills, or anything like them, are
passed by Congress..
10. 10
Works Cited
"9th Circuit Opinion in A&M Records v. Napster (Feb. 12, 2001)."
9th Circuit Opinion in A&M Records v. Napster (Feb. 12, 2001). United States
Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, 12 Feb. 2001. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.
<cyber.law.harvard.edu/~wseltzer/010212-napster.pdf>.
"Comcast spent heavily in support of anti-online piracy bills - The Hill's Hillicon
Valley."TheHill.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.
<http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/220467-comcast-spent-
heavily-in-support-of-anti-online-piracy-bills>.
"Does Internet Piracy Really Hurt the Economy? | The Moral Sciences Club | Big Think."
Big Think | Blogs, Articles and Videos from the World's Top Thinkers and
Leaders. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2012. <http://bigthink.com/ideas/42029>.
"Does Online Piracy Hurt The Entertainment Industry? - Forbes." Information for the
World's Business Leaders - Forbes.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2012.
<http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/21/does-online-piracy-hurt-the-
economy-a-look-at-the-numbers/>.
11. 11
King, Brad. "The Day the Napster Died ." Wired.com . Wired.com, 15 May 2002. Web.
26
Mar. 2012.
<http://www.wired.com/gadgets/portablemusic/news/2002/05/52540?currentPage
=all)>.
Newman, Jared. "SOPA and PIPA: Just the Facts | PCWorld."Reviews and News on
Tech
Products, Software and Downloads | PCWorld. PC World, 17 Jan. 2012. Web. 1
Apr. 2012. <http://www.pcworld.com/article/248298>.
"RIAA - Recording Industry Association of America." RIAA - Recording Industry
Association of America. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.
<http://www.riaa.com/physicalpiracy.php?content_selector=What-is-Online-
Piracy>.
"SOPA and PIPA: The wrong tools to combat online piracy - The Washington
Post."Washington Post: Breaking News, World, US, DC News & Analysis. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/sopa-and-pipa-the-wrong-
tools-to-combat-online-piracy/2012/01/18/gIQA1yxR9P_st
"Verizon v. RIAA." EPIC - Electronic Privacy Information Center. N.p., 7 Apr. 2004.
Web.
12. 12
26 Apr. 2012. <http://epic.org/privacy/copyright/
Weitzner, Danny. "Important New Jersey Supreme Court decision in Internet
privacy | Decentralized Information Group (DIG) Breadcrumbs."Decentralized
Information Group. DIG - Decentralized Information Group, 23 Apr. 2008. Web.
26 Mar. 2012. <http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs
"What is Internet Piracy?."wiseGEEK: clear answers for common questions. N.p., n.d.
Web. 28 Mar. 2012. <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-internet-piracy.htm>.
