The Stop Online Piracy Act: A Blacklist by Any Other Name Is Still a Blacklist. During the past week, momentum against the House’s draconian copyright bill has gained steam, as venture capitalists, Internet giants and major artists have denounced it for handing corporations unprecedented power to censor countless websites and stifle free speech.
In response, the bill’s big-pocketed supporters have gone on the offensive, attempting to mislead the public about the bill’s true reach. In a particularly egregious example, the Chamber of Commerce posted an attack on its website insisting that the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is not a “blacklist bill. " Viacom so devastated by piracy that CEO only gets $50 million raise. For years, the Motion Picture Association of America has been pushing legislation to ratchet up copyright enforcement.
In 2008, the association helped push through the PRO-IP Act, which allowed the federal government to seize domain names used for copyright infringement and created a new federal copyright czar. This year, the MPAA is a leading force in the campaign for "rogue sites" legislation, which would give the federal government broad powers to target sites with minimal judicial oversight. Last year, Viacom, whose Paramount subsidiary is an MPAA member, told the Wall Street Journal that "a new wave of digital piracy could threaten the US media business" if it lost its copyright infringement case against YouTube.
PROTECT IP Act Breaks The Internet. Congress has declared war on the internet.