The U.S. government is trying to pass a bill called Protect-IP, which has been introduced to the Judiciary Committee and could possibly lead to censorship of the Internet. The government says they want to help fight against the act of illegally downloading music, films, and other copyrighted material.Private corporations will get the ability to shut down unauthorized sites where people download music, movies, and T.V. shows. Since a majority of these sites are outside of U.S. jurisdiction, Protect-IP uses a few different tactics.
First, it gives the government the power to make U.S. Internet providers block access to infringing domain names. They can also sue U.S.-based search engines, directories, forums, or even blogs that have links to these sites.
Secondly, it gives the government the power to cut the funds to infringing sites by having U.S. based advertisers and payment services cancel those accounts.
But, it’s really going to be doing something else all together.
For starters, it won’t stop downloaders, all you would need to do is enter the I.P. address of the blocked website rather than the site name. What it will do, is cripple new start-ups because it also allows companies to sue any site they feel isn’t doing their filtering well enough. This could easily bankrupt search engines and social media sites.
Protect- IP’s wording is ambiguous enough that social media sites could become targeted. Lots of sites like Tumblr, Soundcloud, and even Youtube, anywhere people express themselves, create art, broadcast news, and organize protests, wherever there are enough T.V. and movie clips and copyrighted music mixed in, could look like piracy havens to the wrong judge.
In short, Protect-IP won’t stop piracy, but it will introduce potential for censorship and abuse, and make the Internet less safe and more unreliable.
The Internet is a vital and vibrant medium, and the government is trying to tamper with its basic structure so people will possibly buy more Hollywood movies.
Corporations already have tools to fight piracy; they can take down specific content, sue peer-to-peer software, and sue journalists just for talking about how to copy a DVD.
The government has a history of wielding its authority over technology; they even attempted to sue the VCR and the first MP3 players.
-Bryce Glassick, Reporter
