If you were planning to use Wikipedia to get a head start on
this semester’s papers, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow. The crowd-sourced
encyclopedia is staging a 24-hour blackout to protest SOPA and PIPA (the House’s
Stop Online Piracy Act and the Senate’s Protect Intellectual Property Act). Wikipedia, Google, and
other tech giants opposing the bill claim that it would hinder innovation and
infringe on freedom of speech. According to Rep. Zoe Lofgren, whose California
district includes much of Silicon Valley, SOPA “would
mean the end of the internet as we know it.”
Meanwhile, major media companies, including the Motion
Picture Association of America and several record labels, support the
bills' efforts to curb the theft of U.S. intellectual property. Rupert Murdoch
characterized opponents of SOPA and PIPA as “Silicon
valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery.”
One way to see past the hyperbole is to read the text of
the bills themselves. Using THOMAS,
a database from the Library of Congress, you can find the full text of a bill, along
with summaries, revisions, amendments, CBO cost estimates, and a list of
sponsors; you can also track the bill’s progress through the legislative
process. Search for the bills by number or name (not abbreviation), or follow
these links:
THOMAS contains summaries of bills from 1973 through the
current Congress, and the full text of bills from 1989 through the current
Congress. For earlier years, print copies of many bills are available through
Lane Library’s government documents collection.
