They don't think that.

(Well, I'm sure a lot of them actually do, but that's not what the protest about SOPA/PIPA is about).

The reason that people are protesting against SOPA is twofold:

1) SOPA/PIPA proposes exceptionally far-reaching, non-democratically applied powers of control over the entire global internet, on the say-so of powerful American corporations

2) The measures that SOPA/PIPA proposes will do absolutely NOTHING to stop internet piracy of music, films, tv, books or software. Nothing. Not a dent. Not a scratch on the surface.

What the SOPA/PIPA powers will do, and this is what you are not being told by a fairly tech-ignorant mainstream media, is simply give draconian powers of control over the internet to American corporations. Not voters or politicians, but corporations. And it's just the first step of the control that they want, the thin-end of the wedge. The gateway to the total control that they ultimately want.

But they've been quite clever in going about it by presenting it as a front against copyright theft, which is difficult to morally justify. "If this combats copyright theft it can't be a bad thing." Sure, but if it doesn't, and believe me, it doesn't, what then?

You demonstrate yourself that they've been entirely successful in their subterfuge, by trotting out exactly the message that you're supposed to have swallowed.

SOPA/PIPA lecture ends. I hope you've been taking notes, this will feature in your end-of-term exam.

Posted By: Arizona Bay, Jan 20, 13:32:44