Boing Boing Editor: SOPA and PIPA Are 'Completely Ineffective'

January 18, 2012 from Al Jazeera English

Numerous US-based websites, including Wikipedia, Boing Boing, and Reddit have gone offline as a protest against two US laws that they say limit important freedoms that the internet has brought people. The two laws are called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, eBay, and AOL have all spoken out against the proposed legislation. Rob Beschizza, the managing editor of Boing Boing, joins Al Jazeera English from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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In This Video

Stop Online Piracy Act

The Stop Online Piracy Act is a United States bill introduced by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to combat online copyright infringement and online trafficking in counterfeit goods. Provisions include the requesting of court ord... Explore this topic

Protect IP act

The PROTECT IP Act is a proposed law with the stated goal of giving the US government and copyright holders additional tools to curb access to "rogue websites dedicated to the sale of infringing or counterfeit goods", especially those registered outside the U.S. The bill was i... Explore this topic

Boing Boing

Boing Boing is a publishing entity, first established as a magazine, later becoming a group blog. Explore this topic

US Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of two houses: the lower house known as the House of Representatives and the upper house known as the Senate. Congress meets in the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Bot... Explore this topic

Anti-piracy

Anti-piracy measures are efforts to fight against copyright infringement, counterfeiting, and other violations of intellectual property laws. It includes, but is by no means limited to, the combined efforts of corporate associations, law enforcement agencies, and various inter... Explore this topic

Internet censorship

Internet censorship is the control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the internet. It may be carried out by governments, private organizations at the behest of government, regulators, or on their own initiative. Individuals and organizations may e... Explore this topic

Internet activism

Internet activism is the use of electronic communication technologies such as social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, YouTube, e-mail, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster communications by citizen movements and the delivery of local information t... Explore this topic

Wikipedia

Wikipedia (IPA: /ˌwikiˈpiːdi.ə/, /ˌwɪkiˈpiːdi.ə/, or /ˌwaɪkiˈpiːdi.ə/ (Audio (U.S.)is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers; the vast majority of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the ... Explore this topic

reddit is a social news website where users can post links to content on the web. Other users may then vote the posted links up or down, causing them to appear more or less prominently on the reddit home page. The site has discussion areas where users may discuss the posted li... Explore this topic

Google

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is an American multinational corporation which provides Internet-related products and services, including internet search, cloud computing, and software and advertising technologies. Advertising revenues from AdWords generate almost all of the compan... Explore this topic

Also See

Stop Online Piracy Act

Protect IP act

Boing Boing

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