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I was talking to my father-in-law earlier about the SOPA & PIPA laws that were proposed by Congress and have since been “postponed” in the House & Senate, respectively. You may recall earlier this week when Google, Wikipedia and a number of other websites either took themselves offline or posted their objection to these laws. No doubt you’ve also observed the tens of thousands of Social Networkers on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace complaining about the proposed laws. Clearly, the vast majority of people in “Cyberspace” are in agreement with me (or, perhaps, that I am in agreement with them) that these are BAD LAWS. But, really, what were they?

Since the widespread use of the internet first started, there has been an issue with Copyright Infringement. This is where individuals, people like you or me, have taken a movie, CD Music Track, or even a comic book, made a copy of it, and shared it with other people over the internet. Sites like Napster and Kazaa were notorious for sharing files in violation of US Copyright Law. To get around the laws in the US, they began storing their files overseas in places like China and Russia, where these laws were not enforced. Even when they don’t charge for access, these sites would receive revenue from advertising, making their site owners very wealthy, and all because they were breaking the law. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) in the House of Representatives and PIPA (Protect IP (Intellectual Property) Act) in the Senate were intended to enforce existing copyright laws by expanding the power of the Federal Government to shut down these sites if they were found to be participating in this illegal activity. It would do very little to the USERS, who were actually doing the sharing, but would target the sites used for distribution. Unfortunately, like most laws being proposed these days, they were both excessive and REDUNDANT.

Federal Copyright Laws ALREADY have in place the structure to shut down & punish websites that illegally share Copyright Protected files, as evidenced by the recent shutdown of Megaupload.com, a peer-to-peer file sharing website. Megaupload, and sites like them, offer file storage to individuals, often FREE storage, to facilitate the sharing of files. They include a warning to their users: do not store or share Copyright Protected Data on this site. It doesn’t stop them. In fact, I have no doubt that Megaupload, who doubtlessly knows that their users are breaking the law, will be found “Not Guilty” under US Law because of that disclaimer, but the fact that there is already a law on the books that is not being properly enforced is not a good reason not to create ANOTHER law. The key is to find a way to enforce the existing laws.

Of course, the real issue isn’t the fact that sites like Megaupload exist, but the reality that people wish to use these sites. I have a sample of my book, “Self Evident: A Study of American Conservatism,” posted on a similar site known as Filesonic, which facilitates that sample being disseminated to whoever wants it. I’ve offered the sample for free because I’m trying to promote the book, but I know that other people could take my book, scan it, and share it without my permission or my knowledge, even though I have a Copyright with the Federal Government. Does it bother me that the book could be shared and I could be denied my income for the sale of the book? Yes, it does, but the reality of the matter is that the vast majority of people do not participate in illegal file sharing because of the risk. You don’t know what you’re downloading into your computer, and many of these files are riddled with viruses. There is a risk to downloading files illegally, and since the creation of sites like iTunes, where a single music track can be purchased for One Dollar or Less, the appeal of file sharing has diminished even further.

But what I find most problematic with the uproar over SOPA & PIPA is that THIS legislation has gotten so much attention, while a law was passed in December when nobody was paying attention that gives the Federal Government the authority to indefinitely detain US Citizens without Due Process in direct violation of the 4^th, 5^th & 6^th Amendments to the Constitution, and almost EVERYONE is silent about that. Where are your priorities, people? Seriously, think about the message this uproar sends to Congress. “Hey, we’re fine with you throwing us in prison, but don’t get in the way of my downloading porn!” Think about that for just a moment. “I’ll go quietly to the prison camp so long as I have an iPod full of music I didn’t have to pay for!”

Now, before you accuse me of just complaining because it’s President Obama having that kind of authority, let me make it clear: I don’t want ANY President to have that kind of authority over me. I don’t care what letter of the alphabet follows their names! I couldn’t care less if he (or she) were a Democrat, a Republican, a Libertarian, a Socialist, a Communist, a NAZI or a Hippie. The fact that this STRUCTURE exists should scare the crap out of EVERYONE! The Federal Government has never claimed a power that it has not, at one time or another, used, and I would remind you that this exact same kind of authority HAS been used in the United States before…TWICE. German-Americans were rounded up under Woodrow Wilson during World War I, and Japanese-Americans were rounded up under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Administration in World War II. Are you really so sure that it can’t happen again, and that it won’t be YOU this time?

But, go ahead and celebrate that SOPA & PIPA are gone. That’s OK. We’ve all scored a victory against tyranny & oppression. Yay, us! But keep your eyes open, folks…just because we’re paranoid doesn’t mean that they’re not after you, too!

UPDATE 1/22/2012 – File Sharing sites like Filesonic.com have interrupted their services, except for files uploaded by specific people. Here is the message from Filesonic: “All sharing functionality on FileSonic is now disabled. Our service can only be used to upload and retrieve files that you have uploaded personally.”

Filed under: Miscellaneous, Politics by T. Edwin Perry