Opponents of the US web regulations that inspired the Wikipedia blackout have some pretty illiberal tendencies, too.Nathalie Rothschild, Spiked Nothing has watered down the term ‘revolution’ more than its promiscuous use in discussions about web innovation. Developments in internet technology, as well as protests organised online, are widely celebrated by activists, entrepreneurs and governments as ‘revolutionary’. But a debate about proposed internet regulations in the US has shown just how many conflicting interests are tangled up in Web 2.0 and just how cavalier an attitude to liberty many of the supposed champions of internet freedoms have.
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) are designed to crack down on copyright infringement and trafficking in counterfeit goods. The main targets are foreign ‘rogue websites’, piracy sites that are hosted abroad and are therefore currently outside the reach of US law. One example is the Pirate Bay, a Swedish file-sharing website where users can download films and other digital content.
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