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U.S. lawmakers win even if SOPA fails.

The year is 2013: internet piracy is doomed and social media is safe thanks to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The scenario sounds entirely too good to be true – but is it?

Regardless of the perceived criticisms of SOPA by industry critics, Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Mass.) says American consumers can be reasonably assured of one thing:  “We’re now arguing about how best to do this, and that’s a major breakthrough.”

Translation:  it’s only a (short) matter of time before American lawmakers like Dodd will find a way to better regulate offshore piracy  while enforcing American copyright law.

Senator Dodd also (conveniently) serves as the Chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Dodd supports the SOPA act because he says it gives American companies an important new tool in the fight against online piracy. How much does that fight cost just the MPAA each year? Dodd estimates a staggering $58 billion dollars.

“We’re talking about blocking the ability to steal American ideas, American products, and American jobs from foreign sites,” Dodd told Bloomberg News Anchor Emily Chang in a recent interview.

Dodd on Bloomberg

As written in the SOPA fine-print, that “block” comes in the form of a federal injunction by the U.S. Dept. of Justice and implemented through Domain Name Server (DNS) technology.  SOPA proponents allege this filtering strategy would help put foreign rogue websites out of business but cutting off a steady stream of digital users from America.

However, Critics of the bill have been quick to beat their war drums. Concerns over SOPA spurred Yahoo to abandon the heavyweight lobbyist group the U.S. Chamber of Commerce early in December. Facebook and Twitter have also publicly voiced concerns to lawmakers over what some call emerging censorship technology.

Dynamic Network Services President Tom Daly warns that DNS filtering technology could even disrupt the underlying fabric of the internet.  Daly writes:  “it is Dyn’s opinion that the technical implementation techniques contemplated by SOPA do more damage to the global DNS than help solve the problem it aims to tackle.”

Not according to Senior Analyst Daniel Castro who represents the nonprofit Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF).  Castro addresses four major claims that critics have leveled at SOPA and concludes:  “to be clear, DNS filtering is compatible with the current DNS protocol.”

Yet while critics of SOPA squabble over these problematic technical details, other lawmakers continue to push past them.  Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) has publicly stated his support for a similar bill called the OPEN Act designed to combat internet piracy without damaging changes to the DNS.

“I want to keep the web open, because a prosperity brought by innovation has spread to the four corners of our planet,” Issa says in a YouTube commercial promoting the bill.

Issa chairs the House Oversight Committee. He and like-minded proponents say the OPEN Act would allow for the investigation and punishment of rogue foreign websites through the International Trade Commission instead of the U.S. Dept. of Justice. They claim that doing so will prevent what some may feel is a growing form of government censorship.

Issa’s bill was introduced in congressional committee in mid-December and is scheduled for a further hearing as January’s legislative session opens.

Thus, it would seem that while some lawmakers are pooling their resources to ensure the success of SOPA, SOPA opponents are inevitably moving to create further legislation designed to safeguard American business interests from online piracy.

Works Cited:

Castro, Daniel.  “PIPA/SOPA: Responding to Critics.”  Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Dec. 2011:  http://www.itif.org/files/2011-pipa-sopa-respond-critics.pdf

Daly, Tom.  “SOPA: Why do we have to Break the DNS?” Dyn Blog 12 Dec. 2011:  http://dyn.com/sopa-breaking-dns-parasite-stop-online-piracy/

“Dodd Discusses Online Piracy Act.” Bloomberg News 4 Jan. 2012:  http://www.bloomberg.com/video/83704616/

“Section by Section Explanation for the OPEN Act.” KeepTheWebOpen.com 9 Jan. 2012:  http://keepthewebopen.com/assets/pdfs/open-act.pdf