Our Official Stance on SOPA

Where do we stand when it comes to SOPA?

"When government begins closing doors, it selectively controls information rightfully belonging to the people."-Judge Damon Keith, U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals

Most of you will now be aware that on 26th October 2011, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), also known as H.R. 3261, was introduced to the United States House of Representatives. The bill is set to tackle online piracy of intelllectual property and expand the abilities of copyright holders to prosecute websites that are deemed to purvey said practices. It builds on the similar PRO-IP Act of 2008 and the corresponding Senate bill, the Protect IP Act.

There are many facets of the proposed SOPA bill, so we have summarised the key issues:

• Copyright holders under the SOPA bill will be able to seek court orders against websites accused of facilitating or enabling the trafficking of intellectual property.
• Unauthorised streaming of copyrighted materials would be considered a crime and would carry substantial penalties including up to 5 years imprisonment.
• Online Advertisers and Payment facilitators would be banned from doing business with the accused sites, and ISPs would be ordered to enforce blanket blocks.
• Search engines would be forced from linking to such sites and would face harsh penalties for breach of these conditions.

Before we enter into any kind of moral debate about protection of Intellectual Property and firm regulation of legality, we woud like to state clearly: -

Pivotal Hosting does not condone or support illegal trafficking and internet piracy, but we do not support SOPA.

Now that we have that out the way we must concern ourselves with the implications the passing of this bill holds for the future of the world wide web. We recognise that there is the need to ensure that copyright laws are protected, but the question on everyones mind when such a bill is put forward is this: What's next?As an international website design and dedicated hosting provider, regulations would require us to police our clients, preventing them from communicating copyrighted information through their websites. Pivotal Hosting does feel that it would truly be an infringement of our customers right to information and expression, should we vet them as rigorously as is suggested. The internet stands as the last bastion of true freedom of speech, and SOPA bill looks to set in motion the wheels of change, and could bring with it irrevocable damage to those who use the internet for genuine and legitimate purposes.Unfortunately, regulation begets yet more regulation and the broad wording of the SOPA bill may bring with it the dawn of regimented censorship of the world wide web. Our freedom of information and expression on the world wide web need not be dictated by strict laws or governance, but by the inherant moral code of its enthusiast, and their own abiltity to make the right choice. Please visit http://fightforthefuture.org to have your say on SOPA.