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Some background on SOPA and PIPA

We believe the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) bills recently introduced by the U.S. Congress pose severe threats to the hosting industry as a whole and we ask that you take a few moments to understand why.

While created with the good intentions of combating widespread copyright and trademark infringement, Ashworth Consulting opposes these bills for a number of reasons due to their impending negative impact on hosting providers around the world.

First, these bills will legally destroy the Internet’s basic organizational structures by attacking the domain name system, service providers, financial providers, and hosting providers by inhibiting their ability to generate revenue and access to advertising.  Armed with only a mere accusation of infringement, under the current vague language of these bills a U.S. Attorney can obtain a court order requiring web hosting providers, Internet service providers, financial transaction providers, advertising services, and search engine sites to block access to accused websites. In addition, the bills will:

• Restrict online free speech.
• Obstruct the “safe harbor” protections given to website operators by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
• Block online payment processors and advertising networks from doing business with websites suspected of infringing.
• Allow for the arbitrary creation of “blacklists” of websites suspected of infringing.
• Scare investors away from funding Internet startup companies, costing our economy much-needed jobs, and stifling creative business ventures online.
• Potentially criminalize currently-legal conduct.

The most troubling aspect of SOPA and PIPA is that they will do little to stop online piracy since most violators will simply open a new website within hours of being shut down.

Congress’ current session will resume soon and hold votes on these bills. If you also agree that SOPA and PIPA are detrimental to the web hosting industry it is important that you take action by contacting members of Congress and voicing your opposition.  Additionally, if you want to help in opposing SOPA and PIPA by being part of a grassroots movement within the web hosting industry, you can find more information at: http://savehosting.org.

You’re not alone

As you probably know, Ashworth Consulting has chosen cPanel exclusively for our hosting management systems. They have an impressive track record in the web hosting world, and we’ve been happily using their software on our systems for years.

To help in this fight, cPanel is donating $5,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has been fighting to preserve individuals’ digital rights since 1990. (https://www.eff.org). In addition, for every tweet that you post on Twitter with the hash tag #cpanel4antisopa, cPanel will donate an additional $2.50 (up to a total donation to the EFF of $10,000).

This is your chance to get involved and take a stand to protect your internet. If we don’t act, it won’t be the same.