Stop Online Piracy Act

"SOPA" redirects here. For other uses, see Sopa.

Stop Online Piracy Act
Great Seal of the United States
Long title"To promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes." —H.R. 3261[1]
Acronyms (colloquial)SOPA
NicknamesHouse Bill 3261
Legislative history
  • Introduced in the House as H.R. 3261 by Lamar Smith (R-TX) on October 26, 2011
  • Committee consideration by House Judiciary Committee

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was a proposed United States congressional bill to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to combat online copyright infringement and online trafficking in counterfeit goods. Introduced on October 26, 2011, by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), provisions included the requesting of court orders to bar advertising networks and payment facilities from conducting business with infringing websites, and search engines from linking to the websites, and court orders requiring Internet service providers to block access to the websites. The proposed law would have expanded existing criminal laws to include unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content, imposing a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Proponents of the legislation said it would protect the intellectual-property market and corresponding industry, jobs and revenue, and was necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws, especially against foreign-owned and operated websites. Claiming flaws in existing laws that do not cover foreign-owned and operated websites, and citing examples of active promotion of rogue websites by U.S. search engines, proponents asserted that stronger enforcement tools were needed. The bill appeared to have strong, bipartisan support. It was introduced in the House and was sent to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration. It also received support from the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Association of Attorneys General, the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Better Business Bureau, the AFL-CIO and 22 trade unions, and the National Consumers League.[2]

Opponents argued that the proposed legislation threatened free speech and innovation, and enabled law enforcement to block access to entire Internet domains due to infringing content posted on a single blog or webpage. They also stated that SOPA would bypass the "safe harbor" protections from liability presently afforded to websites by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The American Library Association and others also claimed that the legislation's emphasis on stronger copyright enforcement would expose libraries to prosecution. Other opponents claimed that requiring search engines to delete domain names violated the First Amendment and could begin a worldwide arms race of unprecedented Internet censorship. Human rights organizations, including Reporters Without Borders, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Human Rights Watch also opposed the bill.

The move to protest against SOPA and PIPA was initiated when Fight for the Future organized[3][4] thousands of the most popular websites in the world, including Reddit, Craigslist, and the English Wikipedia, to consider temporarily closing their content and redirecting users to a message opposing the proposed legislation. On January 18, 2012, the English Wikipedia, Google, and an estimated 7,000 other smaller websites ceased standard operation as part of a coordinated service blackout as an attempt to spread awareness and objection to the bill. In many cases, websites replaced the entirety of their main content with facts regarding SOPA and the entity's case against its passing. Boycotts of companies and organizations that support the legislation were organized, along with an opposition rally held in New York City.[5] Google announced the company had collected over 4.5 million signatures opposing the bill in their January petition.[6] Access to websites of several pro-SOPA organizations and companies such as the RIAA, CBS, and others was impeded or blocked with denial-of-service attacks which started on January 19, 2012. Self-proclaimed members of the "hacktivist" group Anonymous claimed responsibility and stated the attacks were a protest of both SOPA and the United States Department of Justice's shutdown of Megaupload on that same day.[7]

Some opponents of the bill support the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) as an alternative.[8][9] On January 20, 2012, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Smith postponed plans to draft the bill: "The committee remains committed to finding a solution to the problem of online piracy that protects American intellectual property and innovation ... The House Judiciary Committee will postpone consideration of the legislation until there is wider agreement on a solution."[10] The bill was effectively dead at that point.[11]

  1. ^ H.R.3261 – Stop Online Piracy Act; House Judiciary Committee; October 26, 2011
  2. ^ Scott Cleland (December 14, 2011). "SOPA Fixes Isolate Opponents, especially Google". Forbes. Archived from the original on January 8, 2012. Retrieved December 28, 2011.
  3. ^ Wortham, Jenna (January 20, 2012). "Public Outcry Over Antipiracy Bills Began as Grass-Roots Grumbling". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on June 9, 2018. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  4. ^ "SOPA petition gets millions of signatures as internet piracy legislation protests continue". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on August 11, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  5. ^ Oh, Inae (January 17, 2012). "SOPA And PIPA Protest Organized By NY Tech Meetup Outside Senators' Offices". Archived from the original on October 13, 2020. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  6. ^ "SOPA petition gets millions of signatures as internet piracy legislation protests continue". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 11, 2020. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
  7. ^ Kelion, Leo (March 8, 2012). "Hackers retaliate over Megaupload". BBC News. Archived from the original on June 6, 2020. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  8. ^ Juliana Gruenwald (December 8, 2011). "Critics of Online-Piracy Bills Release Their Own Draft Legislation". NationalJournal. Archived from the original on October 21, 2012. Retrieved January 22, 2012.
  9. ^ "OPEN: Online Protection & Enforcement of Digital Trade Act". keepthewebopen.com. Archived from the original on September 17, 2012. Retrieved January 11, 2012.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT-20120120 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ "SOPA Is Dead: Smith Pulls Bill". Mashable. January 20, 2012. Archived from the original on June 10, 2019. Retrieved June 13, 2019.