A well publicised Wikipedia blackout took place on 18 January
2012: a protest, joined by others with a prominent internet
presence, such as Google, against the proposed U.S. IP protection
legislation "SOPA" (the Stop Online Piracy Act) and
"PIPA" (the Protect IP Act, or, more accurately, the
Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of
Intellectual Property Act). Although the protest
did little to raise the understanding of the content of the Acts or
educate people as to the pros and cons of this combined
legislation, the blackout has, undoubtedly, alerted industries to
the existence of these bills.
In brief, these bills will create more causes of action and enhance
the powers of U.S. law enforcers and rights holders against
infringing foreign websites, operated and registered outside
of the U.S. The legislation will allow the courts to prevent
online ad networks and payment facilitators from doing business
with allegedly infringing websites and going as far as forcing
internet service providers to block access to the infringing sites.
Search engines may be required to remove links to the
infringing websites.
Fears that this legislation may go too far in protecting
intellectual property rights and, by effect, restrict the free and
open internet was made only too clear by the Wikipedia
blackout. To give it a fair press, the Wikimedia Foundation
has stressed that it has an equally strong commitment against
copyright violations as it has against internet censorship.
Also, there has already been some influence on the U.S.
legislators, as SOPA has reached a first amendment, which by
several accounts is an improvement on the original version.
It seems, however, that supporters of this legislation have not had the same publicity as the protestors. There are reports that industry heavy weights, such as Sony Electronics, have been pressurised to pull their support for the legislation. Could it be that we have not received, from the internet and the media, a balanced and considered view of this proposed legislation?
Luckily, Nick Kounoupias, strong supporter of IP rights and Partner in the TMT Dispute Resolution team, with many years previous experience in the industry, spoke up in an interview for BBC World Service News, on 18 January 2012. He put forward the argument for a move towards a legislative solution that improves the powers to enforce the rights of copyright and trademark owners and promoted the stamping out of online piracy and theft, on an otherwise dark and gloomy day for the supporters of this legislation.
Nick Kounoupias comments as follows on the legislation
"The reaction of Wikipedia and others to the proposed US
legislation is an overreaction to legislation that is essential to
aid the fight against internet piracy and IP theft. Ironically by
publicising its blackout for a day Wikipedia has generated a lively
discussion about the cancer of internet piracy, thus publicising
the arguments of those in the film and music world that it
considers behind the legislation in the first place. But
irrespective of the pros and cons of the argument organising a
blackout and in practice going on strike simply because it
doesn't like the current wording in the proposed legislation is
hardly a proportionate response when there is a legitimate
democratic debate in progress. If enough Congressmen oppose the
measures they will not pass. And then there is the
possibility of a Presidential veto also. These measures are
needed to protect the livelihood of tens of thousands around the
world for whom copyright laws are the currency, in which they are
remunerated for their creative efforts. Whilst there is always
scope for sensible debate about the specific wording in the
legislation there can be no doubt that stronger protection against
digital and online piracy is necessary "
Click here to view the video of Nick's appearance on BBC World Service news.
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