The Perils of SOPA
SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is the proposed intellectual property laws that are now in Congress. Both houses have bills that are aimed at combating copyright infringement of movies, music and other intellectual property. Supporting SOPA are some powerful players: content creators, led by Hollywood and the music industry, who want the most stringent measures. Currently opposing them are some tech and electronics players such as Google, PayPal and Twitter. A group of those companies took out newspaper ads this month saying that the bills would "give the U.S. government the power to censor the Web using techniques similar to those used by China."
Education has not played a large enough role in the battle, but there are some some potentially serious consequences if the content creators get their way. For educators, publishers who offer electronic products (which is just about all of them) are on board with strong SOPA legislation as content creators too. The act could have serious repercussions for the use of open educational resources too.
As described by the San Francisco Chronicle:
It is a bill worth taking note of in the next session of Congress.
Further Reading
http://mfeldstein.com/how-georgia-tech-has-shown-the-perils-of-sopa/
http://www.educause.edu/Resources/ProposedSOPAFixesfromtheHigher/242321
http://gigaom.com/2011/12/23/hate-sopa-6-things-you-can-do-to-stop-it/
http://civiliansnews.com/2011/12/24/is-it-piracy-or-sharing-the-truth-about-the-stop-online-piracy-act-sopa/
Education has not played a large enough role in the battle, but there are some some potentially serious consequences if the content creators get their way. For educators, publishers who offer electronic products (which is just about all of them) are on board with strong SOPA legislation as content creators too. The act could have serious repercussions for the use of open educational resources too.
As described by the San Francisco Chronicle:
A bipartisan bill introduced last week in the House of Representatives would mark a fundamental change in Internet law, shifting liability for copyright piracy from the infringer to the host website.SOPA could take away the reasonable “safe harbor” protections for internet site operators and it is unclear what effect it would have on "fair use."
It would chip away at critical safeguards that have shaped the Internet as we know it today, and many worry it would make it far more difficult for the next YouTube, Facebook or Craigslist to emerge and succeed.
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is the counterpart to the Senate’s pending PROTECT IP Act, which already had rights groups, academics and many online businesses up in arms. But the House bill goes much further.
It is a bill worth taking note of in the next session of Congress.
Further Reading
http://mfeldstein.com/how-georgia-tech-has-shown-the-perils-of-sopa/
http://www.educause.edu/Resources/ProposedSOPAFixesfromtheHigher/242321
http://gigaom.com/2011/12/23/hate-sopa-6-things-you-can-do-to-stop-it/
http://civiliansnews.com/2011/12/24/is-it-piracy-or-sharing-the-truth-about-the-stop-online-piracy-act-sopa/
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