Some popular websites have protested two proposed United States laws aimed at
fighting illegal copying of writing, movies and other intellectual property on
the Internet. Wednesday, Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, blacked out its
English language website for twenty-four hours.
Jay Walsh is head of
communications for the Wikimedia Foundation which operates Wikipedia.
The
blogging site Boing and Social news website Reddit also went black.
Erik
Martin is General Manager of Reddit.
Both Wikipedia and Reddit urged users to
contact their Congressional representative to oppose the law. Even Internet
search leader Google protested, although it continued to provide service.
The
Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act are known as
SOPA and PIPA for short. Supporters say they are a way to fight foreign websites
that sell pirated copies of American movies and music.
Steven Tepp is a
lawyer with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He says piracy of books, music, movies
and other forms of intellectual property hurt the economy and threaten
jobs.
David Smith, who once worked as a lawyer in a company, is with the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. He says
the proposed laws would hurt Wikipedia and other sites that depend on material
provided by people who use the sites. He says websites would be required to
police all the material they carry.
DAVID SMITH: "It creates a legal
situation in which a complainant can go before a judge and get an order, and it
then makes the various Internet companies, the Internet service providers,
responsible for what they're carrying. And, this is where the rub (problem)
comes, because it basically turns the Internet service provider into a
monitor."
The House and Senate are expected to work on the bills in the
coming weeks. But after the online protests, some lawmakers have already said
they have doubts about the bill. Republican Senator Marco Rubio urged lawmakers
to take more time to consider the concerns of both supporters and opponents of
the bills.
Obama administration spokesman John Carney said the president
opposes any law that hurts freedom of expression or security.
On Wednesday,
Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner admitted there is now a
lack of agreement among lawmakers on the bills.
