3 Unintended Consequences Of SOPA/PIPA

I recently gave a quick overview of SOPA and PIPA, the two bills in the House and Senate, respectively. The legislation can kill the internet as we know it by letting anyone bring down an entire website by claiming copyright infringement. Even worse, there is no due process. A website can be taken down with no recourse.

The consequences of SOPA/PIPA far outweigh any benefit. Actually, there is no benefit. The result will only be unintended consequences that will make the problems both bills seek to remedy even worse.

Here’s a rundown of the unintended consequences:

Piracy will increase

By restricting digital content (whether it’s ebooks, music, movies, etc) that has a high demand, people will find alternated sources to get that content. For example, for a long time JK Rowling refused to release her Harry Potter novels in ebook format because she was afraid of them being pirated.

Guess what? Her books were some of the most pirated books on the internet. Within hours of a new Harry Potter release, the book would be available in digital format online.

The same will happen if SOPA/PIPA is passed. The strict safe-guards that digital content providers put into place will make it harder, and possibly more expensive, for the public to access that content. When that happens, it will force an underground subculture to develop where pirated digital goods are readily unavailable. The big problem with an underground internet is that it’s much harder for law enforcement to find and prosecute pirates.

The motivation behind SOPA is to stop foreign copyright infringement. However, the language is so ambiguous that a US website can be taken down just as easily as a foreign website.

I’m 100% against piracy. But I’m realistic about it and know that no matter how many laws our government passes, it’ll never eliminate all internet piracy.

Jobs and Innovation Will Be Lost

If SOPA passes, many prominent venture capitalists have said they will no longer invest in online businesses. This means stifled innovation and lost jobs. The next big game-changing website can be lurking out there, but we’d never know because they’d never get passed the start-up phase.

Venture capital is an integral part of online start-ups. Without it, we wouldn’t have sites like Google, Facebook, Twitter and many other websites we take for granted today.

Burden Switches To Websites

Further, SOPA places a burden on the websites themselves to police their own content. With the current Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), that burden is placed on the individual users, not the website. Payment sites, such as Paypal, will also have the burden of “policing” their own users.

What does all this mean? It means that a considerable amount of resources will go to websites having to police their users. These sites will lose money. And lost money means that innovation will come to a stop. It also means there will be no more hiring.

Below is a Techcrunch video that touches on the issues I talked about above.

Related Posts

• SOPA/PIPA Explained: Why You Should Care
• Why Would An Author Pirate His/Her Own Books?
• Get ready for Kindle 2.0 in 2009!
• Piracy Not Just Limited To Ebooks
• J.K. Rowling still fighting ebook piracy, and ebooks are still being demonized

Read More: Censorship, The Interwebs