Microsoft Too Opposes SOPA in Its Current Form

Microsoft is one of the companies that oppose the passage of the SOPA bill, the Redmond-based software giant has confirmed.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) - aka House Bill 3261 or H.R. 3261 – was introduced in the United States House of Representatives in late October last year.

The bill would result in expanded abilities of the U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders in their fight against copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.

The bill would enable U.S. Department of Justice and copyright holders to seek court orders against websites on the presumption that they facilitate copyright infringement.

Unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content would become a crime if the bill becomes law. The penalty would be prison.

The court could rule barring specific entities such as online advertising networks and payment companies from doing business with these websites. The access to such websites could be blocked, search engines could be asked to stop linking to these sites.

Basically, networks, blogs and search engines will have to censor the Internet to abide the law. Companies such as Wikipedia and Google announced plans to protest against SOPA. Various people announced anti-SOPA protests as well.

Microsoft too says that it opposes SOPA. However, the company did not make a public announcement regarding plans to protest against it the same as other companies did, such as Wikipedia with its blackout.

The Redmond-based company did issue a statement on the matter. The same as other companies do, Microsoft is suggesting that the bill should be revised before being approved.

“We oppose the passage of the SOPA bill as currently drafted. We think the White House statement points in a constructive way to problems with the current legislation, the need to fix them, and the opportunity for people on all sides to talk together about a better path forward,” the company reportedly said.