Online Piracy: The Folly of a Blacklist

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In the time since the internet has become mainstream, the means to distribute copyrighted material have grown not only in size, but in ease of use as well. Whether it is a new CD, a best-selling novel, or a fake Louis Vuitton handbag, each can be found on the web with a little effort and some know-how. Criminal enterprise run rampant. The business world is now fighting back. Steve Tepp is one of the fighters. He is the Chief Intellectual Property Counsel for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The U.S. CoC was integral in pushing the now failed legislative actions known as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). These bills would have enabled the government to block access to websites identified by businesses as illegally distributing their intellectual property. The tools needed to combat these issues are lacking, but Tepp’s proposed website blacklisting is not one of them; regardless of the potential benefits and support for action against these criminals

Tepp expresses his views on the subject in the article The Case for supporting SOPA and Protect IP, published by Forbes. His core assertion is that the current laws do not grant law enforcement agencies the tools they need to combat the problem in the global online world. From that he argues that SOPA and PROTECT IP and the legitimization of governmental site blocking contained therein are the tools required. He further asserts that businesses, workers and consumers will benefit from these new governmental abilities. Finally, he claims that the actions laid out in SOPA and PIPA are widely supported (Tepp, 2011).

The assertion Tepp makes regarding the lack of tools available for law enforcement is really only partly true. He states many times the numbers of...

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...ter innovation and creativity. The same innovation and creativity that promotes business growth in the online world. Tepp ignores this collateral damage.

There is really no easy answer for this issue. Tepp and those like him that supported SOPA and PIPA have the right idea, but they are taking the wrong path. People do not like that criminals have run rampant across the internet. However pushing ineffective, easily defeated solutions is nothing more than wasted effort. If anything, companies need to embrace the internet age and work to promote their products with in it. Most people will choose to do the right thing when the choice is clear and that is the sort of thing that impacted businesses should be focusing on. Perhaps if they put the same effort in to embracing the nature of the internet rather than fighting against it, these issues will solve themselves.

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