Oh hell and I didn't even look to see if there was already a thread like this -feels lame-

This is just absolutely the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. I mean, honestly. If you don't know what this is, then here is a link to Wikipedia to explain.

Stop Online Piracy Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What are your thoughts about SOPA (aka Stop Online Piracy Act)? Honestly I haven't met a single person who likes the thought of their freedom on the internet being taken away.

Well its basically about how the greedy movie and music industries are tired of having their movies and songs stolen,aka piracy, (even though ITunes and internet ads made them rich)and to stop the copy right infringement SOPA was born. So web sites like wikipedia, youtube, hulu, etc.. will cease to exist because they will be shut down due to too much copyright infringement.
Honestly the sole purpose of this bill is to get rid f the infringement but it has so much power to such down any website. To do this, there is going to be a police system online (lol) which invades privacy. Also there are going to be huge hits against the first amendment and this will indefinitely kill innovation. People are seriously going to be piss to if this happens. Everyone I know is going mad about it, and without a doubt we are going to see mad protest soon as well.

But dont get all worried. This will never happen. The Obama administration already is going to petition it. And without a doubt if a conservative becomes president it will never see the light of day. :) Even Vint Clerf, the guy that practically made the internet hates it.

Also if it does happen I highly doubt youtube will fall or Wikipedia, just because they can probably afford a series of high tech filters. But perhaps at first they will shut down.

I think you mean that Obama said that he would veto the bill if it reached his desk;
Thankfully SOPA's been tabled, but PIPA is still there, rearing it's ugly head >.>

Whether such a vague legislature that far more targets legit sites than actual pirating sites actually will pass is debatable, but if it did, you can bet sites like wikipedia, which rely on quoting other places as means of creating information pages, and sites like Youtube would be severely affected.

And, how are you supposed to make a filter to check every link for copyright material? You'd really have to look at everything.
A forum site like mene would just be gone like that for something as simple as the poster of this thread's username ;-;

I'm sure there can be a simple way of stopping copyright infringement with a simple filter. It can't be that hard.

Technically, if you're American, the government already has a right to look through our things on the internet, due to laws Bush put in shortly after 9/11. We already have limited privacy, so to be honest, the privacy factor shouldn't be the concern about SOPA. The concern for SOPA is (or, was, at least) the fact that many of our favourite websites would be taken down; that whole websites like YouTube would get shut down and held accountable if even one of their users were to put up something with Copyright Infringement.

The law was stupid and, although it didn't pass, I'm sure others like it will be put up and widely protested against as well.

It is just an attempt to control people further. SOPA SUCKS.