Why is the government thinking of shutting down the internet?

[Txcvgd]

Just found out about the story today on RT America/Russia Today and I want you're view points on this.It started with Wiki Leaks 24 hour protest and if the bill is past then it can be a serious problem next Face Book You tube and Twitter.How come they are doing this stuff?
Oh ok cool.Thanks.

[evirustheslaye]

their not shutting down the internet

[Devon]

They aren't LITTERALLY shutting it down, just making it illegal to do a BUNCH of stuff. They are doing to to stop the pirating of copy right things (mostly movies and songs.) that's how they're "shutting down the Internet"

[greendayrockgods]

The government is not shutting down the internet. These websites are shutting themselves down in protest,

Congress is trying to pass two bills right now, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, and it's sister bill in the Senate called the Protect IP Act (PIPA). The bills essentially have the power to censor the internet as a whole, not allowing anybody to post anything even remotely related to something that is copyrighted. The main problems with these bills are:

1) It's overzealous copyright protections. Anything that is even remotely copyright protected can be taken down, without needing to go through the court system to determine whether there was copyright infringement or not. It also enables the copyright holders to sue you like crazy, and the website as well.
2) It makes websites, such as Youtube, entirely accountable for the content it's users creates.

For example, if you sang a song from Lady Gaga and posted it on Youtube, you could be sued, because technically it breaks copyright laws. Youtube could likewise be sued for you posting that content, as the bill would make Youtube responsible for every single thing all of it's users upload. With the current copyright laws, sites such as Youtube are not responsible for the content their users create, and are only legally responsible to take down material if/when it is reported to be infringing existing copyright laws. However, these bills would change it so that Youtube would have to monitor the hundreds of millions of videos that are uploaded EACH DAY for potential copyrighted material. Youtube has 48 hours of video uploaded to it PER MINUTE. Asking Youtube to comb through that much information is impossible. Not only that, but think about how much "potentially copyrighted material" you see on Youtube all the time. Think about all of the lawsuits that could potentially be brought against Youtube, it'd be so many that it would basically destroy the website as a whole.

The bill also affects websites such as Google, which potentially contain links to websites that harbor copyrighted material. Yeah, that's right, the website doesn't even need to -contain- copyrighted material. As long as it has a link to a bad website, it's breaking the law. Which means pretty much every major social website on the internet- Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, etc.- would be shut down as well. It would pretty much end the internet as we know it. That's why it's being protested. It destroys the freedom of speech we so enjoy on the internet, and would essentially ruin most websites out there now.

You should join the protest. This affects everybody. SOPA/PIPA are bad bills that need to die.

[curvedwinter676]

The goverment is way out of control. Look whats happening to other countries in the world. There mad because there old way of thinking sucks. Does anyone know how much money it cost's to buy a voice america goverment today?