As the dust settles over the SOPA and PIPA acts which many believed would put untold burdens on the likes of web hosts such as Bluehost, it is interesting to see whether the issue of piracy will ever come up so significantly again in political debate.
Much has been made about the film, music and entertainment industry in general lobbying Washington for better laws to protect copyright. These vested interests have been condemned by those opposing the SOPA and PIPA believing that the proposed laws were tantamount to censorship. The key issue rather than censorship from my point view is piracy. How far should it be allowed to prosper on the internet.
The big issue is that many see sharing of content online as pretty legitimate and in most areas it is if you are sharing a video or other content with your friends on social media website. A problem occurs though when large communities develop where content is shared among vast amounts of people and where the copyright of the material means you are illegally sharing.
It is hard to see sometimes but there are vested interests on both sides with those in the entertainment industry seeing themselves lose large sums of money to online piracy while those in the technical and online world who profit from the sharing of such content.
Acts Would Damage Companies Like Bluehost
Sites such as Wikipedia and Google may reduce to the principle of censorship but it is a lot more complicated than that. For certain, SOPA and PIPA didn’t take into account these complexities and would have led to many innocent companies, such as Bluehost, taking the flak for others who didn’t abide by the rule. Online piracy is an issue that won’t go away though as it is fundamentally theft at the end of the day.
