Internet piracy & how to stop it

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A blackout landing page inside the "Anti-Sopa War Room" at the offices of the Wikipedia Foundation in San Francisco on Jan. 18, a 24-hour blackout of Wikipedia's English-language articles, joining other sites in a protest of U.S. legislation aimed at shutting down sites that share pirated movies and other content. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Hour 2

From the download of that song stuck in your head to the episode of that TV show viewed on a foreign website, it’s easier than ever to get your favorite media for free on the internet. Online piracy has run rampant, costing U.S. businesses as much as $200 million a year by some estimates.  Two anti-piracy bills recently proposed by Congress, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), were met with intense opposition and even inspired popular sites like Google and Wikipedia to black out their websites in protest.  As a result, the bills have been put on hold, but supporters of the legislation have vowed to fight on.  Joining us to discuss internet piracy and help us make sense of SOPA and PIPA is LARRY DOWNES, who writes about the intersection of technology, politics and business. Then we’ll get opposing views on SOPA and PIPA from DAVID COHEN of the AFL-CIO and CORYNNE McSHERRY, a lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

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[audio: 021612_110630.mp3]

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