Parker Higgins discusses the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). He also provides a history of intellectual property and Internet regulation bills, and talks about the problems with the legislation as written and the opposition rising from the online community as such bills progress through the legislature.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a United States bill introduced by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-TX) to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.

Provisions include the requesting of court orders to bar advertising networks and payment facilities from conducting business with infringing websites, and search engines from linking to the websites, and court orders requiring Internet service providers to block access to the websites. The law would expand existing criminal laws to include unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content, imposing a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

The PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act, or PIPA) is a proposed law with the stated goal of giving the US government and copyright holders additional tools to curb access to “rogue websites dedicated to the sale of infringing or counterfeit goods”, especially those registered outside the U.S.