Who is sopa targeting

But these hacks were not intended to compromise national security or steal credit card information, the hackers said. Occasionally, the hackers have also published personal information belonging to employees.

Other congressmen and judiciary committee staffers have had their personal phone numbers and home addresses made public as well. While many 4chan users, operating under the Anonymous banner, demanded that proponents of the bill be harassed using the newly public information, others warned such actions would only serve to further the argument that SOPA is necessary to protect not only copyrights but also personal privacy.

Opponents of the bills include free speech and open source campaigners, as well as operators of websites who fear they will be caught by the legislation despite not being involved in piracy. Google has been the most high-profile company to challenge the bills. Opponents argue that the proposals amount to censorship, will disrupt the internet, punish innocent parties and impose unreasonable burdens on intermediary websites. In the light of a recent decision to extradite a UK man accused of copyright piracy, there are also worries that they would extend the jurisdiction of US courts to other countries.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has summarised its specific concerns. Second, it says the Act would encourage overblocking by service providers who wish to receive immunity Section a. Third, it objects to copyright owners having the right to seek court orders against foreign websites, saying that similar rights under the DMCA are being abused. Section of SOPA sets out a two-step process for rights holders to take action.

Fourth, it still has concerns about the ability of the Attorney General to block domain services, even though these have been scaled back. This issue is covered in Section of the Act. Up to 7, websites shut down in whole or part yesterday, and many bloggers and tweeters went silent, as a protest against SOPA.

The most notable site to act was Wikipedia, which blacked out its English-language version as a protest following discussion among nearly 2, users other versions, including the simple-English one, were running as normal. The bills do not appear to target sites such as Wikipedia, but users appeared to want to use its profile to raise their concerns.

You said no. You melted their servers. From all around the world your messages dominated social media and the news. Millions of people have spoken in defense of a free and open Internet. It is worth noting that Wikipedia is a charitable institution with no paying customers, shareholders or investors. But they do so in an overly-aggressive, innovation-endangering way. They allow the entertainment industry to censor sites they feel "engage in, enable or facilitate" infringement.

It could also cut off advertisers and payment processors like Visa from the sites. The Attorney General could essentially kill all of a site's traffic and revenue in a matter of days. SOPA only allows targeted sites five days to submit an appeal. That doesn't leave much time for them to defend themselves before losing their site and their revenue altogether.

The heavy regulation SOPA implies isn't sitting well with many of tech's best and brightest. The letter states:. While we work together to find additional ways to target foreign 'rogue sites,' we should not jeopardize a foundational structure that has worked for content owners and Internet companies alike and provides certainty to innovators with new ideas for how people create, find, discuss and share information lawfully online.

The US laws are designed to block pirate sites, but critics say it will also impact the wider net. ISP immunity. Published 18 January Published 8 March Sopa bill. Pipa bill.