PIPA Articles

As ACTA treaty, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, gains more and more government support, the internet world is revolting against it. This agreement is set to establish a new ruling body that would be responsible for targeting online piracy and was drafted/signed by a variety of countries.

As of October 1, 2011 there have been 31 various countries that have signed the agreement including the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, and many others. Those supporting the agreement state that it is necessitated due to the massive increase in the trade and production of counterfeit goods and copyrighted content.

With SOPA and PIPA now out of the way (hopefully) the attention of the Internet protesting masses have turned towards this Act but why? Here we will examine the reasons behind the negativity against ACTA and also see if the protesting is justified or if it is merely due to thousands of uninformed individuals “jumping the protest band wagon”.

On the 18^th of January 2012 the world banded together in an effort to show their opposition to two acts being proposed in the United States congress. These acts, as you may already know, are the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act and aim at culling the rampant online piracy that is costing the music industry millions.

In the protest on the 18^th several of the largest websites in the world blacked out to show their opposition to SOPA and PIPA and also encourage others (especially Americans) to let congress and their representatives know that they disapprove of these acts.  Google, Reddit, Wikipedia, Flickr as well as others did a blackout and the results were astounding. Thousands of people flooded the Whitehouse and their representatives with phone calls, emails, and more protesting. After all was said and done, those opposing SOPA and PIPA thought that they had won….but they were wrong.

One of the strongest and loudest protesters of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PIPA Act has been Wikipedia. In an attempt to further demonstrate their disdain for these online piracy acts Wikipedia is staging a new protest: an online blackout.

The Wikipedia blackout will be in effect on Wednesday the 18^th and will last all day. The blackout will be on the English version of Wikipedia however Wikipedia states that the other languages will also put up protest banners and may follow suit in order to further spread the word about SOPA and PIPA.

Wikipedia’s co-founder Jimmy Wales Tweeted the other day that the “emerging consensus of the community seems to be for a global blackout of English Wikipedia”. Wikipedia had apparently considered a softer approach to the blackout but apparently a full blackout was decided on.

For those who don’t know why Wikipedia is protesting SOPA and PIPA you can read more here however a short overview is that SOPA and PIPA take drastic and unnecessary measures in an attempt to stomp out online piracy.

The illegal acquisition, or passing on, of copyrighted material (especially movies, games, music, and software) is commonly termed ‘pirating’ and has been a growing problem for years. Governments and the entertainment industry have tried over and over again to stop piracy but all of their efforts have been met with complete failure because they are not grasping the real problem, techdirt reports.

The entertainment industry seems to think that the lack of enforcement on copy right infringement is what has continued to allow this pirating escapade to continue. So, earlier this year, a recent push for more enforcement was by proposing a new bill termed SOPA. SOPA stands for the Stop Online Piracy Act and it was introduced into the House of Reps on Oct. 26. If SOPA passes it gives the Department of Justice a very long leash on the measures they can take to fight online piracy.