Imagine the Internet as you know it censored. Sites you regularly visit have been blacklisted and are now blocked by your ISP. While the scenario seems extreme, it was inherently probable if the proposed SOPA bill had been passed as originally written.

What is SOPA? The Stop Online Piracy Act is an anti-piracy bill, currently on hold, that would have given intellectual property owners (movie studios and record labels) the right to pull the plug on foreign sites against which they have a copyright claim. I’m not in support of piracy by any means but consider the outcome for the companies along the breadcrumb. If Sony Music, for example, claimed that a site in Indonesia was torrenting a copy of Foster The People’s new album, they could demand Google remove the site from its search results, that PayPal no longer accept payments to or from the site, that ad services pull all ads and finances associated with it, and most dangerously—that the site’s Internet Service Provider prevent people from visiting it.

Prior to SOPA/PIPA, the DMCA Safe Harbor Rule was in force. Unless the site was actively participating in copyright infringement it couldn’t be held liable for the actions of its users (completely reasonable if you ask me). SOPA/PIPA could have gone as far as policing images. What’s the big deal? Let’s take it a bit further. Imagine you’ve shared an image on Facebook (in good fun) not knowing the image was a copyright violation. Facebook would have been liable for the copyright infringement even if they complied with the DMCA takedown request. Seem fair?

This bill could have destroyed sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. that allow a medium of free speech to people of every country. SOPA/PIPA would have allowed the take down of sites via DNS blocking simply because they could potentially enable copyright infringement. In a nutshell, all that was required was a single letter claiming a “good faith belief” that the target site has infringed on its content. Once Google or whoever received the quarantine notice, they would have 5+ days to abide or challenge the claim in court. The wide-ranging consequences of this act could have been absolutely massive.

We can all breath a sigh of relief now but don’t get too comfortable surfing the internet in your snuggy, because Congress is busy trying to figure out an answer to the age-old question of piracy—and it’s most likely going to effect us all.