The Stop Online Piracy Act is most certainly an awful, awful piece of legislation.  And that’s why I support Wikipedias blackout in protest.  To be clear, this may be slightly influenced by the fact that my most fact-heavy midterms are on days where I won’t be affected- but more importantly, because SOPA is a big freakin’ deal.

It’s easy to dismiss it as borderline crazy legislation that could never pass- and I’d feel the same way except… well, it isn’t.  It’s main sponsor, Lamar Smith, is very firmly behind it, and with almost a hundred million dollars invested in lobbying for it, I’d say the RIAA and Hollywood are too.  Add to that the fact that the bill has 12 co-sponsors (thanks, Wikipedia) all of whom are going to support it, and this is potentially very, very bad.

The key here, however, is what SOPA does.  It’s not legislation that will stop piracy- it’s just allowing content owners, members of a very small industry group, the right to without due process target and effectively eliminate any site that might host or link to hosting of illegal content by going after US based DNS servers.  What does that do?  Well, it doesn’t quite make it impossible to reach the sites or download content, it just makes it harder for your computer to find it- but it does destroy the multinational framework that is the internet today.

I think the best analogy I’ve heard for what SOPA would do goes like this- if illegal content is the crackhouses and brothels of a ghetto neighborhood, SOPA isn’t sending the police in to kick down doors and clean up the streets.  SOPA is taking down all the road signs so that anyone wandering through can’t find their way to anything relevant- not only does affect anyone on the same street as any of these places, but also anyone going through.  It’s not helpful, and it’s antithetical to the way the internet works.

Now, is Wikipedias measure a little extreme? Shutting down the sixth most visited site on the internet will make waves- but that’s the point.  Nothing has ever been effectively protested without disrupting somebodies day.  For Eric, it may mean finding a textbook- but for a lot of others it will mean actually being forced to learn about what’s going on in the current political system- where special interests have pushed legislation to the floor that threatens the existence of the internet as we know it- especially sites like Wikipedia.

So- going offline for twenty four hours, a tiny fraction of its twelve year existence, in order to protest it’s potential complete shut down?  I say bring it on.  If the blackout brings attention to this legislation and the threat it poses (and it’s not nearly as outlandish as it sounds- it has bipartisan support in both the house and the senate), then it’s worth it.  That, and between not being able to link between articles, and reddit being down through midnight tomorrow, I might actually get some midterm studying done.  Maybe.

Click here for an alternative viewpoint.