The Effect of the Stop Online Piracy Act [SOPA] and Protect IP Act [PIPA] in the Philippines

We have been preoccupied with local issues lately, given the “impeachment trial of the chief justice”, the “bourne legacy shooting in Manila” and the “its more fun in the Philippines” tourism slogan .

But there is major development in the US that can potentially affect online biz and online publishers in the Philippines, and that is the Stop Online Piracy Act [SOPA] being deliberated  in the US Congress and the Protect IP Act [PIPA] on the US Senate. Both have similar provisions and objectives, run after online pirates that are outside US shores. This infographic provides the salient features of the bill:

The bill may appear supportive of responsible online behavior because it aims to protect US creative artists, authors, musicians, movie producers and alike from online pirates outside  US shores. If this bill will be passed, sharing and networking sites like YouTube, DailyMotion, Facebook and Vimeo, blog sites like WordPress.com, Tunblr and Blogspot.com could be held liable for the contents uploaded and published by it’s users.

Likewise, sites outside the US who was found to be containing or hosting contents, links, audios, videos and images violating their copyright law will be blocked in the US. Accounts to facilitate  e-commerce and online ads like google adsense shall also be cancelled.

But these bills were being opposed by almost all biz whose interest is in the web, and digital activists because of it’s  threat to fair trade and  e-commerce, censorship and curtailment to the freedom to speak and to express.

What are the effects  of SOPA and PIPA to  netizens and companies outside US Shores?

As publisher, your creative content shall be pre-screened by YouTube, WordPress.com, Blogspot and alike before they will publish your  material. Presently, these hosting, sharing and networking sites do not hold your content in moderation because they are shielded from lawsuits from copyright holders. Provided, they  will take down your content if found to be in violation of terms of use or when copyright holders filed a complaint. However,  If SOSA or PIPA will be enacted into law, these companies can be sued for the activity and content of it’s users [you].

As webmaster, if your site is found to be hosting or containing materials in violation of US copyright laws, your website will be blocked and inaccessible to users based in the US of A. This mean you will lose traffic from US, will not be indexed by US based search engines. Unable to generate revenue from the US market, and will not allowed to advertise or do [online] business in US.

Companies who have digital presence are also at risk if   copyrighted materials such as  music as the back ground of a video presentations, images in website, or images in an uploaded powerpoint presentation. If comments or links in  contain copyright materials, the website or social networking accounts will also be penalized , even though, these alleged copyright violations are done by users or subscribers who just  left a comment, shared link, images or audio.

NOTE:  

• I was invited to guest at ANC program “future perfect” to discuss SOPA/PIPA but opted out since sked will not permit