SOPA/PIPA

Yesterday saw symbolic acts of self-censorship by various internet organisations in protest against the SOPA and PIPA bills that are currently working their way through the United States Congress.

Sopa and Pipa protests see the web go dark

The SOPA and PIPA bills, intended to combat piracy, have been condemned for being heavy handed and overly burdensome (Wales, 2012). The charge is that these bills fail to address the core of piracy and instead risk the implementation of censorship to tackle the symptoms - that is the individual downloaders.

The Leveson inquiry ongoing in the UK, has raised similar questions about how to defend free speech while still enforcing the law. As Ian Hislop put it in his testimony to the enquiry:

'Statutory legislation is not required and most of the heinous crimes that came up and have made such a splash in front of this inquiry have already been illegal - contempt of court is illegal, phone tapping is illegal... policemen taking money is illegal - all of these things don't need a code, we already have laws for them.'

In the US, there are already laws covering copyright infringement - and the SOPA/PIPA bills are designed to expand the powers available for enforcing them.

However, the legislation has been sullied from the beginning, whatever its merits, by the connection between money and politics. In the US these concerns centre on the big business of lobbying that is tied to these anti-piracy efforts.

In order to deal with both the illegal practices within the UK news media and with 'global piracy', both sides will have share the effort. Only collaboratively can both sides avoid damaging essential parts of  the freedoms of speech & information, as Mr Hislop put the case on the importance of a Free Press:

 'it is important, it isn't always pretty and there are things that go wrong, but I really hope this inquiry doesn't throw out the baby out with the bathwater.'

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References:
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+ Jimmy Wales in BBC's 'Viewpoints: Sites go offline in US piracy laws protest'; 18 January 2012.

+ Ian Hislop in BBC's 'Leveson Inquiry: Ian Hislop says new press laws not needed'; 17 January 2012.