Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales engages with the Copyright Alliance's Sandra Aistars, who says she's the voice of 11 million artists in the US whose ability to make a living urgently require the country to abolish due process, hand over the DNS to a cabal of media robber barons, and criminalize innocent websites by making it impossible for them to comply with the law.
"We're talking about sites that are operated and dedicated to piracy and that are really preventing individual creators across the country from having an economic livelihood from their creative pursuits," says Sandra Aistars, Executive Director of the Copyright Alliance, whose members include the Motion Picture Association of America, NBC Universal, Time Warner, Viacom, ASCAP and BMI.
But critics say the bills could profoundly change the internet by stifling innovation and investment, hallmarks of the free, open internet. "Wikipedia can be defined as a search engine under these [bills]," says Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales. "That would mean it would be illegal for Wikipedia to link to a site, even if we are explaining to the public what is going on here. That would become illegal. This is outrageous. It's not acceptable under the First Amendment."
SOPA Debate: Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales vs. Sandra Aistars of Copyright Alliance
