Ellington

Unprecedented protests and blackouts that darkened some of the world’s most popular websites Jan. 18 warned users about possible consequences of anti-piracy legislation recently discussed in Congress.

If passed, the Stop Online Piracy Act and its Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act, could change the way many students find research and entertainment online.

These bills would allow the U.S. Justice Department stronger authority over websites and their users, Vice President of Technology Simon Maxwell and SPGS Operations, explained.

“(SOPA) and (PIPA) attempt to augment current copyright laws by giving the copyright holders considerable additional standing and power to go after, not only the individual posting protected material or even a link to the material, but also the website used to publish the material or communicate a link to the material,” Maxwell said. “If a student were to make a YouTube video overdubbed with a copyrighted song, not only the student, but YouTube, could be subject to severe penalties and/or actual shutdown.”

Opponents of SOPA and PIPA say these bills also encourage government censorship.

“Imagine a world without free knowledge,” Wikipedia warned on its blacked-out site.

Director of Library Services Kay Bradt said Baker’s library databases are safe and wouldn’t be affected because their resources are paid for.

Other resources students use for papers and projects, like ardent SOPA/PIPA opponent Wikipedia, are not as secure.

File sharing site Megaupload, which Bradt says students used to store large files like data and computer graphics, was shut down by the U.S. Justice Department on Jan. 19 after its owners were indicted and arrested for copyright infringement and other crimes.

“’[SOPA and PIPA] will have more of an effect on the kinds of material that are kind of on the cusp, where it’s not obvious that the author is being compensated,” Bradt said. “They could also have an effect on how students interact with their own material.”

The sponsors of SOPA and PIPA have temporarily shelved the bills to address public concern over the bills’ potential to enforce extreme penalties.

“While not very likely, especially given the recent protests that have caused Congress to at least temporarily shelve the legislation, and very likely rewrite it before it becomes law, these acts could literally allow for MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and others attempting to protect their content to use them to shut down Facebook and Twitter,” Maxwell said.

Both bills’ sponsors have said they hope to resume discussions soon. A recently introduced anti-piracy bill, OPEN, also offers a more moderate way to enforce copyrights.

According to ProPublica’s SOPA Opera, which documents politicians’ stances on anti-piracy bills, all Kansas senators and representatives are listed as opponents of SOPA and PIPA.