T O D AY, T H E D E B AT E C O N T I N U E S TO UNFOLD ONLINE, THROUGH CONGRESS AND IN THE COURTS — W I T H I M P L I C AT I O N S F O R A L L COMMUNICATIONS ON THE I N T E R N E T. The issue reached a flashpoint after the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act caught the attention of anti-copyright activists as these bills were quietly wending through Congress. In January 2012, they became the subject of a heated debate when Wikipedia, Google and an estimated 7,000 websites coordinated online protests with blackouts and signature petitions. Within weeks, the bills became focal points in a global showdown over copyright law and the rights of Web users.
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So what would these bills do? SOPA and PIPA would have granted courts power to cut off a website’s domain name service and credit card processors and force Internet Service Providers and search engines to block infringing websites. When opposition to these bills coalesced into a massive international campaign, the bills’ sponsors sensed defeat and withdrew them, although the debate continues and new legislation is still likely. To shed light on the larger issues, Associate Professor Dr. Erik Ugland, who teaches media law and policy in the Diederich College, and Law School Assistant Professor Bruce Boyden, an expert on intellectual property law, shared contrasting opinions about what these bills would mean for creativity, censorship and the future of the Internet.
fight for the future of the internet
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