SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is a United States bill introduced by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Provisions include the requesting of court orders to bar advertising networks and payment facilities from conducting business with infringing websites, and search engines from linking to the websites, and court orders requiring Internet service providers to block access to the websites. The law would expand existing criminal laws to include unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content, imposing a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
Opponents state the proposed legislation threatens free speech and innovation, and enables law enforcement to block access to entire internet domains due to infringing content posted on a single blog or webpage. They have raised concerns that SOPA would bypass the "safe harbor" protections from liability presently afforded to websites by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Library associations have expressed concerns that the legislation's emphasis on stronger copyright enforcement would expose libraries to prosecution. Other opponents state that requiring search engines to delete domain names violates the First Amendment and could begin a worldwide arms race of unprecedented Internet censorship.
On January 18, 2012, the English Wikipedia, Reddit, and an estimated 7,000 other smaller websites coordinated a service blackout, to raise awareness. In excess of 160 million people viewed Wikipedia's banner. Other protests against SOPA and PIPA included petition drives, with Google stating it collected over 7 million signatures, boycotts of companies and organizations that support the legislation, and an opposition rally held in New York City.
On January 19, 2012, Megaupload (Link), a Hong Kong–based company providing file sharing services, was shut down by the US Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Barrett Brown, described as a spokesperson for the group Anonymous by the state-run news outlet RT, said the timing of the Megaupload raid "couldn't have come at a worse time in terms of the government's standpoint". Some commentators and observers have asserted that the FBI shut down of Megaupload proves that SOPA and PIPA (Protect IP Act) are unnecessary.
On 18 Januray 2012, The English Wikipedia blackout occurred for 24 hours. The site showed only a message in protest of SOPA and PIPA asking visitors to "Imagine a world without free knowledge."
Source : Wikipedia
