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The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday shuttered Megaupload, a popular file-sharing website, charging seven of its executives with engaging in an international criminal enterprise based on copyright infringement. Federal authorities called it one of the largest criminal copyright cases in U.S history.
SOPA opponents — that is, the people and organizations lining up against the Stop Online Piracy Act — clearly still have their work cut out for them. At the same time, there are signs that the massive protest against the bill is having some effect.
The bill’s chief sponsor, U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, suggested in an interview published Thursday that he had no intention of backing down.
Tech heavyweights such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and Zynga are lining up in opposition to a copyright enforcement bill that will be the subject of a hearing in the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on Wednesday: the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. The companies sent a letter to key members of both congressional chambers.
A coalition of film studios, record labels and media entities led by the UK record industry lobby group BPI recently sent a letter to British Internet service provider BT demanding that the company block access to The Pirate Bay website. The group said that if BT doesn’t act within two weeks, the matter will proceed to court.
Technology analyst Scott Steinberg fields a viewer question on the latest approach to curbing online piracy: "Internet service providers policing pirates: What is Hollywood smoking? And does anyone really think that this will work?" Not really, suggests Steinberg. Enforcement would be costly and cumbersome, and probably not at all effective.