I've written a bit about SOPA - the new copyright law that's being debated makes the DMCA look reasonable (yes, it really is that bad). One of my senators is a co-sponsor (of the senate version, under the name Protect IP), which makes me even happier about the whole thing.

Reddit plans to go dark for a day in protest:

The freedom, innovation, and economic opportunity that the Internet enables is in jeopardy. Congress is considering legislation that will dramatically change your Internet experience and put an end to reddit and many other sites you use everyday. Internet experts, organizations, companies, entrepreneurs, legal experts, journalists, and individuals have repeatedly expressed how dangerous this bill is.

This proposal really is that bad, and the first place it would get used would be to silence political opposition (of all stripes, but especially of the opposition candidate versus incumbent sort) under the cover of "copyright infringement".

The DMCA lets copyright holders lodge a takedown notice against alleged infringement - this bill makes that kind of thing a felony. And never mind the restriction to "foreign websites" - you try and imagine Google filtering based on the plethora of stupid that the copyright industry will toss out if this passes. You try to imagine any site running any kind of open comments section, when a stray link could result in DNS banishment. We're headed to a "great firewall of America" with this bill.

Technorati Tags: stupidity, law