The Stop Online Piracy Act, otherwise known as "SOPA," is losing friends fast,
and now it looks like there's a good chance it'll lose the support it
needs to make it out of Congress alive, much less the White House.
High-profile websites like Reddit and Wikipedia went dark last Wednesday to give visitors a taste of what SOPA and PIPA opponents say the whole Internet could look like if they become law. Smaller sites participated as well, and even Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) put up a black banner and provided links to information, though it still let visitors do their thing.
The bills are backed mainly by large content providers -- movie studios, record labels and other big-time media producers. They're designed to be a way to keep digital piracy in check. For example, under SOPA, if a rights holder has a copyright bone to pick with a foreign website, the rights holder can take steps to shut that site off from several vital channels -- search engines, ad networks, even Internet service providers. That stuff's like food and water to the survival of most sites, so in other words, under SOPA, a rights holder could basically starve the offending site out of existence.
But SOPA's and PIPA's opponents aren't just a bunch of piracy fanatics who can't bear the thought of having to pay a few bucks to see "Iron Man 2" instead of torrenting. A lot of them are actually against piracy. What worries critics about SOPA is what they see as a lack of oversight. They say it makes it way too easy to simply snuff out a supposedly offending site just by writing a strongly worded letter. There's also concern that SOPA would overburden legitimate sites with a huge new set of legal obligations and leave a door open for Internet blacklists that threaten the freedom of expression.
Those opponents have been getting their message through with info campaigns and lawmaker briefings, but Wednesday was the day of the big online protest, and it seems to have had some real results. U.S. lawmakers' websites were reportedly inundated with messages from constituents, Google delivered a 4-million-name petition against SOPA, and several erstwhile SOPA-loving legislators jumped the fence on the issue. The weekend before, President Obama revealed that he doesn't care for SOPA either.
The protests rankled SOPA and PIPA supporters in the movie and music industries. MPAA Chief Chris Dodd released a statement calling the Web blackout "an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today," apparently without a hint of irony. And RIAA spokesperson Jonathan Lamy joked on Twitter about students actually having to do original research with Wikipedia out of commission, though he apparently deleted it soon after.
Just for the record, most serious Wikipedia articles are stuffed with links to cited materials, many of which are well-regarded scientific studies and academic papers. So it can help with research, if you use it right.
Anyway, it's all very democratic and grass-rootsy to see so many websites fly the banner, distribute information, and angle for widespread public opposition to bills most people probably weren't aware were even being considered a few days prior. And if Wednesday's action does prove to be a main factor in SOPA's and PIPA's unraveling, it'll show that a great big protest still can make a difference in the passage of legislation.
But the bills' backers are experienced political wranglers. They know how to get Congress' attention, they know how to lobby, and they know just where to put the money to make sure laws are passed. They won't give up on their goal to stem piracy, and it's a reasonable goal in itself. But in order to ensure that future efforts don't look anything like SOPA or PIPA, perhaps the Web companies that have stood up to the bills will need to start playing Washington from the inside a little harder, just like every other industry with interests to protect.
