http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... helved.ars
http://mashable.com/2012/01/20/sopa-is- ... ulls-bill/

Good news for now; however, I'm sure we'll be hearing about this same kind of idiocy again under a different label.

Not to mention, Megaupload was shut down by the government.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... upload.ars

But for now, I'm gonna be happy that this first battle is won. The war, however... ain't over.

I think the shut down of megaupload is actually a loss for us. Just shows that the government doesn't even need to pass the bills to shut down sites. Some people who used MU paid for its services. So really, this is the government flexing its muscles. I think the acts were just a smokescreen anyway to hide what they're trying to accomplish.

Megaupload was shut down because a large portion of its hosting facilities were on US soil.

The bill aims to hit sites not on US soil.

The events coincided, but were unrelated. Many people are misreporting this.

I'd just like to point out while yes, Megaupload mostly functioned in the US, the owners worked out of New Zealand. Our guys went over there and got them. That's pretty "not on US soil" to me.

Extradition happens frequently in cases of international crime. It wouldn't have happened if the guys in NZ didn't have their servers on US soil.

The case against MU has also been in the works for several years. Completely independent of current house and senate endeavors.

I think the apprehension was what creeped me out quite a bit. The way I understood it was that the US requested that the NZ police raid them- and they did.

On the flip side, Megaupload letting its employees openly email eachother on company time about using your own service for privacy was pretty darn stupid. But that's deserving of a court battle, which is most surely coming after this. This was also the combined efforts of several countries besides NZ and the US, though.

On the subject of hearing about it under another name, I've seen a few posts today about ACTA being the next sopa/pipa, though it has actually been around for quite a while now, and is aimed internationally, it's closer to passing but has been largely ignored until now.

If this was some UN resolution to give Interpol more clout in fighting Cybercrime, I think this would be less outrageous to me. The fact that the U.S. is trying to pass SOPA, is like the US trying to make it legal for fish in the ocean to carry semi-automatic guns to shoot fishermen who go a bit over their limit; IT MAKES NO SENSE.