Internet users throughout America (and in much of the world too) are by now familiar with two infamous pieces of legislation that are working their way through our Congress – the Stop Online Piracy Act (“SOPA”) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (“PIPA”). The issues surrounding the laws caused multiple leading internet sites to close down on Wednesday of last week. Taking part in the protest were popular sites like Reddit, BoingBoing and the English-language version of Wikipedia.
There is no doubt that SOPA and PIPA deal with an important issue – copyright infringement – but many technology companies and internet users feel that they go too far. SOPA and PIPA did come from the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America, two organizations that often made negative headlines for their aggressive pursuit of alleged file sharers of copyrighted music and movies. With SOPA and PIPA, if a company complains that infringing material is accessible through a particular website, that company can obtain a court order that would make that site inaccessible to American internet users. As such, critics have likened the power of SOPA and PIPA to that of China’s “Great Firewall.”
Last Wednesday’s web protests did seem to have an effect, with many Congressional sponsors of the laws withdrawing their names from SOPA and PIPA. How has your business handled intellectual property infringement? What kind of impact would SOPA and PIPA have on your operations?
Klein Trial Lawyers – Los Angeles business litigation lawyers