What is SOPA?
Since the dawn of the web, people have sought ways to get paid products for free ranging from music to movies which has led to heightened protection measures, lawsuits and a pendulum swing from the days of Napster where everything was originally free without paying royalties to the iTunes store of today where everything is legit. But what does music have to do with your business?
Enter the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) introduced to Congress which “gives the U.S. government and copyright holders the authority to seek court orders against websites that traffic in infringing, pirated, and counterfeit intellectual property.” The SOPA bill has ardent supporters and vocal critics and impacts business in America as a recent study showed that venture capitalists would stop funding digital media projects if SOPA passes.
On the other hand, your intellectual property would be better protected – in the era of digital media, it isn’t just musicians and artists that create; it is being argued that original content that is scraped by scraper sites (as happens frequently to us) is counterfeit intellectual property and subject to legal action under SOPA which will be much more harsh than current, barely existent legislation.
Any bill that looks like censorship can cause friction, as SOPA clearly has and if this bill is passed, it is certain that your rights online will change – good or bad. Below is an infographic with more details on SOPA by the Business Insurance Quotes blog:
Click to enlarge.
