You Tube at Facebook nanganganib magsara

MARAMI pa siguro ang hindi nakakaalam, especially yung mga 

hindi gumagamit, o di kaya ay bihirang gumamit ng internet as a 

source of information, knowledge o alternative entertainment, na 

nagkakagulo na dahil sa SOPA o tinatawag na  Stop Online 

Piracy Act.

            Ano ba ang SOPA at papaano nito maapektuhan ang 

milyun-milyong internet users all over the world?  

Ayon sa Wikipedia, ang Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is law (bill) of the United States proposed in 2011 to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. 

Proposals include barring advertising networks and payment facilities from conducting business with allegedly infringing websites, barring search engines from linking to the sites, and requiring Internet service providers (ISP) to block access to the sites.

The bill would criminalize the streaming of such content, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

User-content websites such as YouTube would be greatly affected, and concern has been expressed that they may be shut down if the bill becomes law.

Opponents state the legislation would enable law enforcement to remove an entire internet domain due to something posted on a single blog, arguing that an entire online community could be punished for the actions of a tiny minority.

 In a 1998 law, copyright owners are required to request the site to remove the infringing material within a certain amount of time.  SOPA would bypass this "safe harbor" provision by placing the responsibility for detecting and policing infringement onto the site itself.

Lobbyists for companies that rely heavily on revenue from intellectual property copyright state it protects the market and corresponding industry, jobs, and revenue.

The US president and legislators suggest it may kill innovation.  Representatives of the American Library Association state the changes could encourage criminal prosecution of libraries.

Other opponents state that requiring search engines to delete a domain name begins a worldwide arms race of unprecedented censorship of the Web and violates the First Amendment.

On January 18, English Wikipedia, Reddit, and several other internet companies coordinated a service blackout to protest SOPA and its sister bill, the Protect IP Act.

Other companies, including Google, posted links and images in an effort to raise awareness.

An estimated 7,000 smaller websites either blacked out their sites or posted some other kind of protest.

A number of other protest actions were organized, including petition drives, boycotts of companies that support the legislation, and a rally held in New York.

* * *

Ashton Kutcher nakikiisa sa pagtutol sa SOPA

AKO mismo ay naranasan ko ang naturang SOPA blackout last 

January 18 when I was trying to connect to Wikipedia.  

Ang hirap pala kapag tuluyan nang nagsara ang mga major sites na pinagkukunan natin ng  impormasyon -- parang nababalewala na ang kahalagahan ng internet.

        Millions of Americans oppose SOPA and PIPA (Protect IP 

 Act) because these bills would censor the Internet and slow economic growth in the U.S.

            Kaya ang kanilang battlecry ay “End Piracy Not Liberty.”

            Ang inventor ng Internet, Marc Andreesen, Wikipedia, 

Google, Facebook, at iba pang higanteng sites ay nakikikisa sa 

protestang ito.

            Ang ilang Hollywood celebrities tulad nina Ashton 

Kutcher, Kim Kardishian at Kevin Smith ay sinusuportahan din 

ang pagtutol sa SOPA.

            Tweet ni Kutcher, "Please don't ignore what's happening 

here.  IMPORTANT MOMENT IN HISTORY! #StopSOPA."

Sinulat ni Kardashian, "We must stop SOPA/PIPA to keep the web 

 open &Free.

Sabi naman ni Smith, "Tell Congress: Don't censor the web!"

        Sa ulat ni Ingrid Lunden ng paidContent.org, isang araw 

matapos ang SOPA protest sa web, the hacker group Anonymous 

has taken the blackout theme to a whole new level:  bilang ganti sa 

pagsasara ng Megaupload file-sharing site, at para sa sarili nilang 

version ng SOPA protest, the group has started to systematically 

take down a number of websites for groups connected to the Megaupload case, including government bodies.

Gamit ang distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, pinuntirya ng mga hackers ang Department of Justice’s site ng US, ang RIAA, ang MPAA at ang mga  major record labels --  Universal, BMI at Warner Music Group, ay naapektuhan na.

Ayon pa sa ulat: “At the moment, the hackers are updating a Twitter feed with news of developments of the attack, which it is code-naming #OpMegaupload.

It also appears that it is also going after related sites outside of the U.S. as well.

A series of messages posted on Anonymous’ Twitter feed, have detailed the group’s trail of destruction across the internet.”

Magsisimula nang magbotohan ang US Senate sa January 24.   

Kahit wala tayo sa Amerika, bilang internet users ay malaki ang magiging epekto nito sa atin. 

Labanan natin ang censorship.  Huwag nating hayaang mawala ang very foundation ng freedom ng internet.

Makiisa.  Tutulan ang SOPA!