Can someone please explain about SOPA?

[brisray]

The intention of SOPA was to make it easier to remove sites that distributed content that was already illegal, such as unauthorized copyright files.

The idea behind it was that sites that were found to be distributing these files would have the DNS access blocked. The law would be very wide ranging though and many see it as an invasion of civil liberties. It would be because the act is badly and loosely written.

Others, like Google for example, are opposed, maybe for the civil liberties angle but maybe also because it would cost them a fortune to make sure their user uploaded content did not violate copyright. Google already acknowledged this when the bought Youtube. Apparently, they laid aside $500 million for copyright lawsuits - http://blogmaverick.com/2006/10/30/some-...tube-deal/

SOPA may have been shelved again but like the pharmaceutical companies and banks that couldn't or wouldn't police themselves so now have bodies like the FDA and SEC overseeing what they do then legislature will come to police the internet.

Hopefully next time, they'll overhaul the entire copyright system to something sensible while they draft the law. Almost 100 years for copyright music and video is just stupid - http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm

No one is threatening to shut down loads of popular sites apart from ones that host a lot of illegal material. No, the whole of the internet could not be shut down.