Infographic: What is the Stop Online Piracy Act, and why should I care?

The Stop Online Piracy Act, which is before committee in the US House of Representatives is proving to be a hugely controversial piece of proposed legislation and one that has split the technology industry.

Large parts of the technology entertainment industry, including household names such as Dell, McAfee, Microsoft, and Sony, believe it is needed to protect copyright on the works they produces while many in the web industry, including some of the most popular sites online, such as eBay, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Yahoo!, say it will allow for government-sanctioned editing of the web.

So controversial is the law that Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, Mozilla, LinkedIn, Twitter, eBay, AOL, and Zynga jointly wrote to the House Committee on the Judiciary in November to voice their concerns about the bill.

But if you are still wondering what SOPA is about then have a look at this infographic by BusinessInsurance.org (@biz_ins) which shows just what the US Government and copyright holders could do to websites accused of infringing copyright, and how it could affect web users in America and around the world.

Click to enlarge the image