SOPA and Sedition: Tyranny Restored!

Today, the world is obsessed with SOPA and PIPA.  Sorry, these are not failed Spanish sodas, found to be rip offs of Fanta.  These are two government policies about the Internet and the ability to access free information, without bureaucratic tyranny.  SOPA and PIPA are explained well by the Forbes website, which states the following:

" This is all because of two pieces of legislation: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House and its Senate companion bill, the Protect IP Act (PIPA).  The purpose of these bills is to make it harder for sites — especially those located outside the United States — to sell or distribute pirated copyrighted material such as movies and music as well as physical goods such as counterfeit purses and watches. Even most of SOPA and PIPA’s strongest opponents applaud the intentions of the legislation while deploring what it might actually accomplish.

Although its sponsors have said that they would amend the bill, as currently written, SOPA would enable the U.S. Attorney General to seek a court order to require “a service provider (to) take technically feasible and reasonable measures designed to prevent access by its subscribers located within the United States to the foreign infringing site.” Until this weekend, one of the ways to do that would have been to cut the DNS (domain name server) records that point to the site, but that provision is likely to be removed after the Obama administration weighed in on the issue over the weekend, saying “Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small.” The administration also echoed concerns raised by a number of security experts, including some anti-malware companies that the bill could disrupt the underlying architecture of the Internet."

Simply, the ability to access public information would be inhibited and the freedom of expression and free speech would be nil.  This is an important part of the First Amendment: any attempt to attack this is unconstitutional.

The Alien and Sedition acts in 1798 strike a similar tone.  These acts were pushed by the Federalist presidency of John Adams and sought to secure America from French attacks.  The Acts contained 4 motions: (Source - http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/sedition/)

1) Naturalization Act - passed by Congress on June 18. This act required that aliens be residents for 14 years instead of 5 years before they became eligible for U.S. citizenship.
2) Alien Act - on June 25, authorizing the President to deport aliens "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States" during peacetime.
3) Alien Enemies Act - was enacted by Congress on July 6. This act allowed the wartime arrest, imprisonment and deportation of any alien subject to an enemy power.
4) Sedition Act - passed on July 14 declared that any treasonable activity, including the publication of "any false, scandalous and malicious writing," was a high misdemeanor, punishable by fine and imprisonment. By virtue of this legislation twenty-five men, most of them editors of Republican newspapers, were arrested and their newspapers forced to shut down.

 These acts were repealed in 1800, via the election of Thomas Jefferson.  He was a member of the Democratic-Republicans - a group targeted by the Alien and Sedition Acts.  The massive uproar from the American people elected him via their huge opposition of the Acts created by the Federalists.

How are these two distant historical events similar? The SOPA/PIPA attacks the 1st Amendment and the Alien and Sedition Acts did likewise.  Just like the Alien and Sedition Acts, I hope that the SOPA/PIPA Acts are rejected.  We cannot lose our freedom to express ourselves and access free online information.  That is essential for our democratic system.  Any attempt to attack this right is unconstitutional - plain and simple.  Join in the opposition of this tyrannical, jejune, and foolish law.

Sources:
http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/sedition/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymagid/2012/01/18/what-are-sopa-and-pipa-and-why-all-the-fuss/
http://betterthandoinglaundry.blogspot.com/2012/01/sopa-pipa-and-copyrights.html