The Internet After SOPA Passes

As you all may know by now, today is the day big websites like Wikipedia and Reddit will black out to potest against the SOPA law. Countless blogs are participating too, and while I'm not blacking out my blog, I will post about this.

SOPA in a nutshell
Basically the Stop Online Piracy Act (or SOPA in short) is a bill meant to stop copyright infringement on the internet. It says that if you use someone else's content, you can get imprisoned. Yes, that CD you downloaded? That can get you into jail. But the thing about SOPA that threatens us so much is that when a site is suspected of copyright infringement, the US government has the rights to shut that website down. An added bonus is also that the owners of big community sites are responsible for the content of their customers.

If you want to know more about what SOPA entails, I would recommend you to read the Wikipedia article.

So, if the SOPA law passes, what will happen?
This is the part I love. If SOPA really will be the law they pretend it will, this will happen to our internet.

• Blogger will shut down. Cause you know, we use pictures that aren't ours. 
• Wikipedia will shut down. They take away from encyclopaedia sales, down it goes!
• Youtube will shut down. Youtubers love to use music that isn't theirs.
• Facebook will shut down. You never know what someone is sharing over there.
• Twitter will shut down. Linking to content that isn't yours? Boo!
• *Insert all of your favourite sites* will shut down.

Man, this looks like some kind of dystopian novel, doesn't it?

Let's face reality guys
But, come on. You remember the last episode of the US government VS. Piracy drama? I'm talking about their fight against the Pirate Bay here. I bet this is a defeat they don't want to think about. Because, you know, the Pirate Bay is still up and running. And it's probably doing better than ever, with all of their media coverage. They can act like little children here, and think they can shut us all down, but to be honest, they never will.

First, because shutting down every social media site will cause an outrage. There are literally billions of people that use Facebook and/or Twitter every single day. Do you want to be that person that tells them they will lose their accounts?

But most of all, it's just impossible. If you can't shut down some little server with two guys keeping it running in Sweden, you can't shut down the friggin whole internet.

What will really happen
That depends on if it passes or not. I suspect everyone will chicken out on the last moment. This is just way too much for the USA to keep up with.

But if it does pass, I think Sweden will suddenly have a massive influx of immigration. A lot of geeky people carrying electronic devices. I wonder what they will do over there.


***