*sigh* Calm down people. No need for blood. If you want to do something for Earth, then stop breathing first, we will talk after, ok? And mind you, I'm of the opinion that if this world has to end, it will be by humans hands. Also, a world war, an act of terrorism is the worst thing which could happen if you want SOPA to pass, for the simple reason that it will a new sensationalism which will just make a media cover and allow the senate to act in the background.
Now, first of all, I can't say this enough, but this is in the Internet. The Internet being the Internet, information travel fast, disinformation even faster. Check and crosscheck your information. Take some time to think, and search about what you don't know.
Then, a bit of history. Internet is born during the Cold War, as a US military project, DARPA if memory is right. As a result, the majority of the Internet infrastructure is in the US. The Internet was never by the people for the people, it's for the goodness of the USA.
Concerning the author of SOPA being a copyright infringer so his text is wrong. You know what I can say about this? Argumentum ad hominem; logical fallacy, it's not because he has committed this that it nullifies the value of his text. It also don't means he is right. In order to create a debate, one must not fall in the pits of meaningless argument. It's useless to discredit people.
About MegaUpload, it's just a coincidence. They didn't need SOPA to take it down.
Ok, now I may sound like I'm for it, but I'm not. I have been against Hadopi here in France, and of course I'm against SOPA and PIPA. But let us be clear, that being against these laws is not the same as promoting piracy, because most people here have committed copyright infringement. I may continue to buy manga, games, music, doujinshi, but it doesn't counter balance what I have done. However by experience, I know it's because of piracy that I buy what I like and support the artists. I hope it's the same for the other.
As a geek, I'm against these laws because knowing how the network work, first of all, this is giving too much power to the hand of private corporation, then I'm surprised the Pentagon is letting this passed.
Simply enough, if such laws are passed, in the next 6 months you can be sure that the Internet will be the darkest place on Earth where everything can go. Information technology is a race, and at the moment, it's quite easy to create a darknet, but nearly impossible to break it. If we want, it's perfectly possible to create an anonymous network. So, for the defense of a country, this is a great threat. Since it's a popular example, child pornography will go unnoticed as well as all terrorist organization.
In short, such laws are ineffective as the technology is here to circumvent and will not solve the problem.
Then, this emanate from corporate company, especially the so called "music industry", "movie industry". I pretty much hate when they associate these words together. Thank you for the extremely bad soup you have delivered in the last decade. But well, when money is in the game, everything is good to earn more. In short, it's laws for the rich so that they keep getting richer. At the moment, they don't need such laws since they keep getting money.
However these idiots ( because I will be frank, they are ), seems to be focused on an old economical business plan. We are living in an era where the duplication of information has a cost of nearly zero. What you pay on the Internet nowadays is the product of the mind, something hard to estimate.Then again, its a digital era. Who use a CD player in the street? Nearly no one. It takes room, and it's far easier to manage a digital library. CD are nice, but we are encouraged not to use them with mp3 player and smartphone, computer. But they are basing themselves on CD sales. Their method are pretty demagogue as they associate less sales as more piracy and thieveries. However, people goes to more concert, pirate buy what they like. Piracy != thief. They don't lose money when you download something as they didn't press it on a CD. They have lots of method to make people think so, but it's mainly because they are basing themselves on a physical world.
What they should do, is adapt to a new economy, or die.
Since this is getting a bit long, I will recommend people who wants better informed opinion to read:
http://arstechnica.com/
