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The '''Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)''' is a bill that proposes a number controversial measures for dealing with online piracy including the distribution of copyrighted material via the [[internet]].

The '''Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)''' (also known as House Bill 3261 or H.R. 3261) is a bill that proposes a number controversial measures for dealing with online piracy including the distribution of copyrighted material via the [[internet]]. It was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on October 26, 2011, by House Judiciary Committee Chair [[Lamar Smith]] (R-TX). If passed, this bill would give the United States law enforcement and copyright holders greater control to fight Internet [[piracy]] (copyright infringement). The Attorney General would be able to close down websites that infringe copyrights, and ban the site from online payment mechanisms such as [[PayPal]] and [[Visa]]. He could also prohibit the sites' online advertising, and disable [[Google]] from ranking and linking to infringing sites.

Those supporting the bill include [[television]] and [[music]] companies whilst critics include [[Google]], [[Facebook]], [[Twitter]], [[Wikipedia]], and [[Yahoo]].

Those supporting the bill include [[television]] and [[music]] companies whilst critics include [[Google]], [[Facebook]], [[Twitter]], [[Wikipedia]], Yahoo!, and Mozilla, the creators of [[Firefox]].

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