Group 4B Research: Awkward Turtle Team

If this law was passed 10 years ago we might not have YouTube or Facebook.

If you recall the early days of YouTube, it was rife with copyright infringement. Only after it was purchased by Google, did the company enforce copyright laws effectively. Thus, YouTube became the legitimate media website it is today, that companies use as a tool to promote their projects or artists.

The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Wednesday on H.R. 3261 (SOPA). A statement released by Judiciary Committee chairman Lamar Smith defended the bill.

Military documents laid bare in the biggest leak of secret information in U.S. history suggest that far more Iraqis died than previously acknowledged during the years of sectarian bloodletting and criminal violence unleashed by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

400,000 purported Iraq war logs

"We hope to correct some of that attack on the truth that occurred before the war, during the war, and which has continued on since the war officially concluded," said Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, at a news conference Saturday morning in London.

I’m sure you’ve heard by now that SOPA is bad and would ruin the Internet, but have you actually read the bill? If not, it’s worth reading, for two reasons.

First, if you are going to oppose a bill, you should know exactly what you’re opposing, not just the vague principle behind it. Second, it’ll provide you with a valuable insight: that these bills are written in an attempt to obscure the truth.

DEDICATED TO THEFT OF U.S. PROPERTY- An ‘Internet site is dedicated to theft of U.S. property’ if–

Bill Text112th Congress (2011-2012)H.R.3261.IH

ince November, 24 million+ internet users have helped to seriously wound SOPA and PIPA. Yet, Congress and Hollywood are still working on backroom deals. They need to keep hearing from us, write them now.

t's a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests," Dodd said. CBS Corporation, which owns CBSNews.com, is a member of the Copyright Alliance -- a

nternet companies and their investors would readily say that they're holding the "blackout" to protect their corporate interests -- and the entire burgeoning Internet-based economy.

The U.S. government could order the blocking of sites using methods similar to those employed by China. Among other things, search engines could be forced to delete entire websites from their search results.

o make matters worse, SOPA and PIPA won’t even work. The censorship regulations written into these bills won’t shut down pirate sites.

It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products."

"The Committee will continue work with both copyright owners and Internet companies to develop proposals that combat online piracy and protect America’s intellectual property," Smith continued.

The ideas present in both SOPA and PIPA may return, but both bills in their present form—and with their present names—are probably done for good.

SOPA and PIPA may have been put on hold -- thanks to possibly the most contentious uproar seen on Capitol Hill and in the tech world ever -- but other legislation was introduced this week to combat online piracy.

ccording to Issa’s site KeepTheWebOpen, which elucidates the bill in its entirety and asks for people to comment on it, “If the ITC investigation finds that a foreign registered website is ‘primarily’ and ‘willfully’ infringing on the IP rights of a U.S. rights holder, the commission would issue a cease and desist order that would compel payment processors (like Visa and Paypal) and online advertising providers to cease doing business with the foreign site in question.

Hollywood’s staunch and powerful support of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) in the House, and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) in the Senate is much maligned.

OPA has been delayed, for now.

and Internet domain company GoDaddy.com (which lost many accounts as a result of its support for the bill); SOPA has been shelved.

The Motion Picture Association of America, one of the bill’s largest sponsors, is expected to regroup.

The SOPA online piracy bill that helped spark this week's unprecedented Internet protests will be redrafted, its lead sponsor said Friday.

The move came shortly after the Senate postponed a key vote on the companion PIPA bill scheduled for next week and amid calls for consensus before Congress moves forward on any legislation to address the problem of foreign piracy websites.

But he warned, "The day will come when the senators who forced this move will look back and realize they made a knee-jerk reaction to a monumental problem."

What is the purpose of the bill?

There are actually two bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act, known as SOPA, in the House and sister legislation called the Protect IP [Intellectual Property] Act, or PIPA, in the Senate. Both are designed to tackle the problem of foreign-based websites that sell pirated movies, music and other products.

How do the bills attempt to stop piracy?