Help Us to stop SOPA /PIPA

On the constant bidding by the entertainment industry and software industries, United States government is considering two bills which aims at stop online piracy. The Stop Online Piracy Act(SOPA)also known as House Bill 3261 or H.R. 3261 was introduced in United States House of Representatives and another similar Protect Intellectual Property Act(PIPA) introduced to the U.S Senate on 12 May 2011.

Fighting against piracy sounds to be good, especially if one is working hard to create something innovative, qualitative and it is being debased by any other person who gains control over it without paying anything for it. Pirated copies are always available on flaunting websites, and there are always people who download free stuff even when they know it’s wrong. We always think and wish there was some way to stop the illegal distribution of content.
We are also in favor of  stopping on-line piracy but we at, Outshine Solutions, strongly oppose these bills because of its implications. Internet should be free as always to allow people to freely express their views. Not only we, companies like Google, Facebook ,Twitter, Mozilla, LinkedIn, Tumbler, eBay, reddit, Wikimedia, AOL, Yahoo! etc also oppose the bill.  Moreover, this bill is impossible to be technically enforced.
However the bill is also getting its support from companies like Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, AVEVA, Dell, Intell, Corel, Microsoft etc who are spending millions to push this bill. Simply anything that comes under the category of mildly offensive could be banned straightaway.
Through these bills, copywriters will get the power to take judiciary action against any website that will violate copyright law. That means, search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing wouldn’t be able to show these sites in search results. Such websites won’t be able to put advertisement or even PayPal for any business transactions. Open source software, cracked version or any pirated software will not be available. Also illegal streaming of live tv channels, matches, or movies will not be allowed on streaming websites. Users have to be owner of videos if they are sharing it on YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter.
Think, in our day-to-day life, we all use Facebook and share other’s words, pictures, songs and videos, what all is this , it is also a form of piracy. If this bill is implemented than everyone among us will forget Facebook and other social networking sites because it will become mandatory for we all to be original. People won’t be able to write even their own views if it comes under someone’s property. It will definitely led to deletion or ban of a huge percentage of websites or web pages from the internet world.

Watch the video below to know more about SOPA/PIPA.

Piracy is a major problem but SOPA is not the solution as there are defects and loopholes in both bills : Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA and its sister bill Protect Intellectual Property Act or PIPA, therefore it’s a humble urge for all to say “no” to this unrealistic, ineffective, absurd bill and want support from everyone who is using internet and who are posting their original ideas, to join your hands against this futile, technically impossible bill by signing up americancensor website at http://americancensorship.org/.