The recently proposed Stop Online Piracy Act that inspired blackouts of major Internet websites such as Google and Wikipedia has a sparked immense controversy over Internet regulation. Although SOPA appears to have been tabled in Congress, questions about the future of the Internet — and the attempts to reform it — still remain.
“The Internet is tempting,” said University professor Kyu Ho Youm,@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=youm@@ Jonathan Marshall First Amendment Chair in the journalism school. “People with access to the Internet want to download anything and everything if they can avoid paying for it.”
He does not believe a complete Internet overhaul is necessary but does believe that copyright infringement is an issue that needs to be regulated and one that college students must pay attention to.
“College students are more likely to live with the Internet 24/7 than other segments of our society,” he said. “They are the first generation that has grown up and lived through the Internet.”
Katie Taylor,@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Katie+Taylor@@ vice president of the ASUO, also realizes the profound effect the Internet has on University students.
“We feel that students especially would be negatively impacted by the ability of the government to censor the Internet,” Taylor said. “However, we do urge Congress to choose alternative methods to prevent the infringement of intellectual property rights that are reasonable and do not give any institution the power to censor the Internet.”
Both Youm and Taylor expressed happiness that the SOPA bill in its current state appears to have been tabled by Congress.
“Millions of people expressed their outrage and displeasure about the very restrictive proposals,” Youm said. “I would say that the public outcry was a smashing success.”
According to Wikipedia, 162 million people viewed its blackout page, and 8 million of those contacted their congressional representative.@@http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_SOPA_and_PIPA@@
Rep. Peter DeFazio visited a University philosophy class Friday afternoon to discuss SOPA and the impact of the Internet blackouts.
“I think this is fantastic,” DeFazio said. “It shows you can change the direction of Congress, and you can take on incredibly powerful well-funded sources who are trying to manipulate the political process.”
He continued to discuss several of the bill’s provisions and went on to say that the public outcry as a result of the SOPA bill “was a great moment in the grassroots or Net-roots democracy.”
The controversial SOPA bill has elicited opinions from many sides, and Youm believes this is an exciting time in American history.
“The Internet helped a lot during the revolutions in Egypt and Libya,” he said. “In a way, we are having a kind of similar revolution in the United States, but in a much more civilized way.”