The Internet Is Fighting Hollywood's Blacklist Bill By Censoring Itself

Maybe you recall hearing about the PROTECT-IP Act, the $200 million Hollywood-funded Senate bill that aims to stop online piracy by doing things like giving copyright owners and the government the ability to hijack websites and censor search engine results that meet vague definitions of copyright infringement. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act, also known as the E-PARASITE Act) is the House version of the bill, and as of yesterday, it’s been undergoing hearings attended by both Hollywood lawyers and internet companies in preparation for a final showdown that will determine the future of the net.

Despite the fact that previous legislation like the DMCA and the NET Act have provided amble ability to go after infringers, and that the copyright industry has grown both in profitability and jobs (PDF) — even in light of the 2008-2009 recession — lobbyist lawyers were stacked against their Silicon Valley opponents during the hearings, which began yesterday. Reports say that a lone member of the bill’s witness opposition, Katherine Oyama of Google, was placed in a “punching bag” type arrangement with the MPAA’s 5 corporate spokespersons. EFF is live-tweeting the events, which seemed, according to Ars’ Nate Anderson, “designed to shove the legislation forward” and ostracize any who criticize the bill as sympathetic to piracy.

Google, Foursquare, Mozilla, Tumblr and every other internet company that’s worth a damn aren’t siding with pirates, of course. They’re trying to point out the unprecedented danger this bill poses to free speech and the ongoing stability of the internet itself. The process the bill proposes for eliminating “rogue” sites involves essentially nullifying the “safe harbor” clause of the DMCA, making websites and search engines responsible for censoring content and allowing the government to meddle with the DNS (Domain Name Systems) of the sites being targeted.

For the unacquainted, DNS are like the roadmaps of the web, taking the URLs typed in or attained from hyperlinks and directing the browser to the appropriate address (IP). Therefore, screwing around with DNS doesn’t just affect a single site. Rather, it can be the internet equivalent of firebombing an entire city block to smoke out one guy running a counterfeit handbag operation. To avoid getting put in the doghouse, sites like Google and YouTube will basically be asked to censor themselves by removing content that might, conceivably, be viewed by rightsholders as infringing.

A large group of technologists and engineers have compiled an extensive summary of these dangers (PDF), condemning the actions proposed by the bill as reckless and destructive to the online security of businesses, governments and average internet users alike. Even Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has come out in opposition of these methods during the time of COICA, the copyright industry’s previous attempt to establish martial law on the internet.

If SOPA passes, you can also expect to see a lot less legitimate content online since the rubber-stamped process of taking down “infringers” circumvents any form of due process. Requiring little more than a rightsholder’s request, the sites taken down in this manner will lose any revenue streams from ad networks and donation and will only be able to reclaim their sites after a lengthy appeals process.

Web companies have been rallying hard against the bill since the hearings began, declaring Wednesday American Censorship Day, a holiday they hope won’t have to come again next year. Over 6,000 websites including BoingBoing, 4chan and the Mozilla homepage have voluntarily censored their logos in protest of the bill. Tumblr even went as far as to run a script which blocks all text and image content on the site until the user addresses their plea for action. A page set up to connect visitors to their representatives via phone was averaging 4 calls per second.

All hands are on deck, but will it be enough to convince the House and Senate? Several petitions, including one on whitehouse.gov that’s gotten nearly 40,000 signatures, are floating around online, and AmericanCensorship.org has logged over 1,000,000 letters to members of Congress.

You should join in too. Write and call your representatives, and watch the video below to get a better idea of the vastly different online world we’ll be left with if SOPA slips through the internet’s defense forces: