Facebook filled with student concerns about the effects of two pieces of legislature that would effect internet usage.

The Stop Online Piracy Act and Personal Information Protection Act both peaked public interest the last two weeks, as social media and online petitions like the one found on Google. 

Truman's ITS department had specific concerns about the effects the bills would have on the University, said Donna Liss, ITS chief information officer. 

Liss said both bills have been shelved indefinitely, meaning they won't be voted on as planned, for revisions after prominent websites such as Wikipedia and Reddit participated in a 24-hour blackout Jan. 18, . 

"[SOPA and PIPA] actually affects everybody at Truman, not just the technology area," Liss said. 

A couple of areas in the bills, especially SOPA could affect the University, she said. SOPA in some ways contradicts the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, which provides "safe harbor" for Internet sites posting information. Safe harbor gives sites an opportunity to take down copyrighted information without facing punishment. 

Under SOPA, sites would be ordered to shut down and it would not be given the opportunity to address the offending material internally, she said.

This means an entire website, such as truman.edu, could be shut down for one piece of information and that is a problem, Liss said. 

A more pressing aspect for Truman is that the University would have to redirect all information believed to be copyrighted to another site under these new bills, Liss said. Meaning Truman ITS would have to constantly "interrogate" content that is moving and being stored electronically to ensure information being sent on the server is not copyrighted.  

Currently, Truman has no way of monitoring content to that extent, Liss said.

Enforcing these new provisions would take time, money and effort away from the tasks ITS performs for Truman on a daily basis, Liss said. She said she also worried that monitoring the server content would create a security hole and would cause for a need in huge security changes. 

A part of SOPA addressing streaming media on the Internet could affect what is taught in classes, Liss said. There currently is litigation involving the ability of teachers to post videos online and have students view them at separate times. There are questions about how streaming falls under the Fair Use Act. 

The court cases involving this ability still are unresolved and it is unclear what the final rulings will mean for fair use policies, Liss said. 

Fair use was put into play to allow people, especially education institutions, to share acceptable pieces of information instead of having to use full articles or videos, Liss said. Professors can use this information as long as they follow a set of guidelines, she said. 

Communication professor David Peppard said he takes videos from YouTube showing advertising techniques used during the past. He said it would be harder for him to get those beneficial materials from the Internet under SOPA. 

Liss said if the University began monitoring all content for copyrighted material, even the small, legal pieces of information, such as YouTube videos used in the classroom, could be marked as illegal. ITS then would have to spend time showing why that material is legal under Fair Use, she said. 

Freshman Emily Bledsoe said she is concerned SOPA and PIPA could affect her education and her ability to gain knowledge.

"It's not so much that I want to be on specific websites just to be on them, but in this day and age the Internet is so important in learning about what's going on in the world," she said. "It'd be harder to get unbiased facts."

Bledsoe said she signed online petitions and emailed her representatives about the bills and received responses thanking her for the concern. She said she understands the need for antipiracy laws, but she thinks SOPA and PIPA were written in a way that infringes on First Amendment rights. 

Freshman Craig Spidle said he supported SOPA at first because he thought it would protect American businesses. After doing more research, he said he agreed with criticism that the original bills were too broad.

Spidle said a new bill should be drafted and aimed to accomplish the same goals SOPA and PIPA originally stood for, just in a way that is more focused and specific. He said if a new bill comes out, he will support it. 

Liss also said the bills had good intentions, and there is a serious need to stop online piracy. However, she said SOPA and PIPA were worded in a way that potentially could cause harm to citizens.  

"I would encourage students that if they haven't yet, they should at least try to sign a petition somewhere," Liss said. "This is not in everyone's best interest."