THE ONLINE PIRACY ACT: AN INFOGRAPHIC

Would the Protect IP Act / Stop Online Piracy Act help business or kill innovation? From Mashable, via BusinessInsurance:

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is stirring up a lot of controversy in the tech world. Companies that rely heavily on copyright protection call the bill piracy protection; those that rely on user-generated content call it censorship.The bill strengthens the U.S. Justice Department’s power to go after websites that host disputed copyright material — and could make sites such as YouTube and Tumblr that host such user-generated content liable for copyright violations.

AOL, eBay, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Twitter, Yahoo and Zynga delivered a letter to members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives last month that argues SOPA “pose[s] a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as to our nation’s cybersecurity.” They later ran the letter as a full-page ad in The New York Times.Meanwhile, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) support the bill.

If you’re as confused by the nitty-gritty of this act as we are — how would it help? how would it hurt? what would it actually do? — then I highly recommend you check out this very informative infographic that explains everything in a very easy-to-understand format. To be clear, sites like MetalSucks would probably cease to exist if these acts were to pass. Learn more about the bill here, including contact information for your local congresspeople.

-VN

Thanks: Muhammad Saleem