Everyone should be concerned about SOPA/PIPA, but as a website developer, it's of extra concern to me and my clients.
I've already done the Facebook/Twitter thing, and my own site is participating in the SOPA blackout today, but I'm also sending out an email to my clients about the issue.
The problem, of course, is how to do so without risking losing their business. You and I know that it's a non-partisan issue, but there are some people who simply don't like their vendors coming even close to anything "political" even if it directly impacts their business.
So, I'm looking for a bit of feedback for the email that I plan on sending out to my clients later on today. Here's how I have it worded at the moment:
(note: specific websites/names/company names are linked to the appropriate place in the actual email):
Dear Brainwrap Client:
I do my best not to mix politics with my business (except, of course, for my political clients). I hope to never have to do so again. However, there are currently 2 bills pending in the United States Congress that directly threaten both my business and yours.
I’ve thought about whether to email my clients directly or not over the past few weeks, but decided that this is too important not to do everything in my power to bring to your attention. Please read this entire message and learn more at the links provided at the end.
You may have noticed that Brainwrap has gone “on strike” for the day, joining thousands of other websites, including both small ones like mine and major ones including Wikipedia, Mozilla, Reddit, Wired, Craigslist and many others in protesting the so-called “Stop Online Piracy Act” (aka “SOPA”) and it’s companion bill, the “Protect IP Act” (aka “PIPA”).
Other major sites such as TwitPic, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and even Googlehaven’t actually “gone dark”, but are supporting the effort by prominently posting links and information about the dangers of SOPA/PIPA to the internet.
In addition, other companies have publicly stated their opposition to the bills, including AOL, eBay, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
First and foremost, it’s important to understand that this is NOT a partisan, left-vs-right issue. Nor is it a “big guy” vs. “little guy” issue.
Opposition to these bills is widespread and bipartisan. President Obama and Democratic Senator Ron Wyden oppose it...as do Republican Congressmen Paul Ryan and Daryll Issa. Major partisan political website communities such as the left-wing Daily Kos and the right-wing Red State are in full agreement about how dangerous these bills (or any similar bills under a different name) would be to the entire internet.
Unfortunately, the bill also has a number of supporters from both parties, few of whom appear to have even the most basic understanding of how the internet works.
It’s important to understand that these bills, if enacted into law, will do very little to “stop online piracy” or to “protect intellectual privacy”.
They would, however, effectively censor the entire internet, potentially resulting in your website being taken down through no fault of your (or my) own.
The idea behind the bills is to give the government the authority to shut down websites that enable piracy of copyrighted material such as movies, music, tv shows, photos and so on, and to prosecute those who are responsible for these websites.
The problem is that the way the bills are worded, media companies would have the power to shut down ANY website simply by CLAIMING that they contain—or even LINK TO—copyrighted materials.
It wouldn’t matter whether the website owner is aware of whether there’s copyrighted materials on (or even linked from) their website.
It wouldn’t even matter whether it was true or not; the accusation itself would be enough to shut down the site.
In fact, your site could even be shut down just for discussing possible ways of working around your website being shut down.
Social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter, and even your personal/company blog could be censored if a single member of that site does any of the above.
There would be no need of a conviction or even formal charges being pressed for your site to be shut down. No judge, no jury, and in some cases, no notification, since your site could be legally removed from every search engine, including Google, Bing and Yahoo!, without you even knowing about it.
Oh, yes: And if you ARE found to be guilty of posting—or even linking to—any copyrighted work (even unknowingly), you could be sentenced to up to 5 years in jail.
Ironically, none of this would stop actual piracy sites, since most of their servers are located outside the United States. Their domain names would be killed, but anyone knowing the direct numeric IP address of the server (which is to say, most media pirates) would simply enter that number directly and continue to download copyrighted material.
As I said above, I do my best not to mix politics with my business. However, these bills go far beyond any partisan bickering or ideology, and if passed into law, would directly threaten both my business—and most of yours.
No one is saying that copyright infringement isn’t an issue, but SOPA/PIPA—and any other similarly-worded bills that may crop up in the future under a different name—are NOT the solution.
They would, quite simply, break the web.
What can you do about it?
First, don’t take my word for it; learn more about SOPA and PIPA:
WIkipedia has left two articles up for the day...one on SOPA and one on PIPA, of course:
A short video explaining the bills in a nutshell.
Slashdot gives a good overview.
Here's PC World's summary of the issue.
Google's take.
Next, contact your members of Congress to tell them you’re opposed to SOPA/PIPA:
Google: Take Action!
AmericanCensorship.org
SOPA Strike
If you have a Twitter account, tweet about the #SOPASTRIKE
You can also prep your own Twitter account here.
If you’re on Facebook, you can post the SOPA Strike page to your Facebook account by clicking here.
Spread the word to as many people as you can.
Thank you for reading this, and I apologize for the intrusion into your day. As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Brainwrap Web Design
Helpful advice appreciated. I'll be sending this out in the next couple of hours one way or the other.