Listen to Google, Facebook, PayPal and other Web companies, and you’ll hear that an online Armageddon is near: Bills now pending in Congress to thwart online piracy would violate free speech, destroy the technological underpinnings of the Web and hinder the user-generated innovation like the next YouTube or Twitter.
Listen to Walt Disney, the NFL, Eli Lilly and a slew of entertainment and manufacturing companies, and you’ll hear that the Internet is a lawless Wild West: Congress is only trying to be the sheriff and save American jobs, make sure writers and artists are paid and protect the public from fake Viagra and Coach bags peddled online.
So who is right?
The truth, as is often the case in heated battles on Capitol Hill between deep-pocketed constituencies that eye each other suspiciously, comes down somewhere in the middle.
Here are the central claims in regards to SOPA:
- Congress would let the U.S. censor the Internet.
- Congress would thwart innovation on the Internet.
- Congress will break the Internet’s architecture.
(read more about this bill at Politico)
