The freedom to share and online piracy are two sides of the Internet.

The internet has given us unimaginable freedom. We are able to communicate, share and absorb so much more due to the Internet. This freedom to share is what has increased the sales for computers and ultrabooks all over the world.

In fact, it would not be wrong to say that the ability to share is one of the most attractive aspects of the net.

Freedom to Share VS. Online Piracy

The Internet is not only about passively consuming; rather, it is an interactive platform which is bringing the world much closer. With all this sharing that the internet has made possible, it has also allowed for a high level of piracy. From music to flicks to even photos, and basically any other type of content, online piracy has become a major concern.

Online piracy is eating into our freedom to share.

There are bills like Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) that are designed to control piracy on the internet.

While on one hand we have those arguing in favour of these acts (mainly those sitting in the house), on the other hand there seems to be a widespread agitation against these bills.

Here is a TED video on SOPA.

Even big corporations like Google, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are against the bills. Do keep in mind that these very sites spend a lot of money to ensure the privacy of their users. It is also interesting to see how Google deals with intellectual property rights and privacy.

The question now is this:

Should the internet user have the freedom to share or will any good come out of the online piracy acts?

When it comes to arguments in favour of the bills, let’s just say that there are none.

Freedom to Share: Not to Support SOPA

SOPA for one is worded loosely and the intent is simply to allow the big companies of American entertainment industry to control the net. It is so poorly designed that if passed it can be misused by any site to have overseas competition shut down.

SOPA allows one to identify so called rouge sites that one may suspect is indulging in copyright theft and have it shut down.

Image Credit: Flickr.com

Sadly, with this bill, it is more about proving one’s innocence rather than another’s guilt. Thus, this will seem to work only for those looking to do damage rather than stop piracy in any way.

The worlds largest domain registrar, GoDaddy initially supported SOPA, but pulled back in a turnaround, when domain owners threatened to move away thousands of domains.

True, online piracy is a bane of the internet. But that is the deal.

Can Online Piracy Stop? Ask Pirate Bay

Just a short while ago a large number of countries got together and won a fight against Pirate Bay. Great! The end result was nowhere near what the winners were looking for.

Pirate Bay went on to offer the code for its site free of cost to anyone interested and today thousands of new versions of the site have mushroomed. Online piracy continues, and even much more aggressively than before.

The more you ban it, the more interesting it gets. People just find more creative ways to get to the content and the pirate here seems to be yards ahead of those wanting to control piracy on the net. Those looking to harness or control the internet will find that it is mostly a sheer waste of time, money and effort.

Piracy is a problem, no doubt. There are film makers who are losing money because of it and the same holds true for the music industry. At the same time, the solution offered by so called piracy laws is so ridiculous that it threatens to kill the entire spirit of the internet.

The Internet is not a passive arena. It is in constant motion. Users share, copy, and download, and these facilities are the very essence of the World Wide Web. Now while the net does offer a lot in terms of privacy controls, real online piracy is a completely different game.

With privacy setting being high, the users are protected (to some extent), but for those looking to control piracy, it is best they pick a different battle, since this one just seems to be a sheer waste of time.

Are we finally losing the freedom to share?