This is a serious issue. Though this only really applies in the U.S., this restrictive act can still affect countries outside the U.S., primarily those that use websites like Facebook and Twitter. This act essentially looks to place the distribution of information on the Internet into the greedy hands of big companies and corporations. Never before has such a call to censorship been so close to reality for America. Many companies are lobbying to get this act passed, and they're paying big money for it to go their way. It's very possible that no YouTube, imprisoned and fined net-users, and a 6 month old last-update status on Facebook is in our future. We can't let this happen.At the time of writing, US Congress is considering two bills, the PROTECT-IP Act (PDF) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) (PDF). Some of those in the media industry argue that the acts, which will allow an unprecedented level of internet censorship under US law that will impact on the web worldwide, are necessary to protect jobs.
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"If you see a link that you think is infringing and report it, the site owner must take it down when made aware of it, or become responsible. But what's now being proposed – among other things – is for sites to police IP proactively. If they 'don't do enough to prevent it', whatever that means, they become liable and can be shut down without ever going to court."
Bains believes the impact on start-ups will be immeasurable: "Any start-up with any kind of social aspect – i.e. most of them – will be held accountable for the behaviour of their audience. The legal bills alone will kill most start-ups before they get to prototype, never mind the cost of the not-so-accurate filtering software that various parties are trying to shill."
Read more about it here (and watch the informative video http://vimeo.com/31100268)
http://americancensorship.org/
Full article:
http://www.netmagazine.com/news/sopa-bi ... try-111571