Can someone please explain about SOPA?

[Chris]

I don't know what the hell is going on but it must be something big.
I'm in the UK and over here there is no talk about SOPA on the news or in the papers.
But online everyone is going crazy, every trending topic on Twitter is about SOPA,
and how Facebook Twitter and Wikipedia could be shut down. Can someone please
tell me three things.

1. Who or what is SOPA.

2. Why are they threatening to shut down loads of popular websites

3. Could the whole internet be shut down any minute.
5 minutes ago - 4 days left to answer.

[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.

[Nicholas Au]

From what I understand, SOPA is an organisation formed from the major entertainment industries (e.g. I think Hollywood supports SOPA, I could be wrong though) and part of the US Congress. Basically, SOPA wants to shut down websites which have any aspects of piracy and websites that are functioned through their users (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Google, Firefox, Youtube who are all against SOPA), so that less people will post copyrighted material illegally.

However, I think SOPA shouldn't pass for it will ruin the internet and our favourite websites will be shut down. Moreover, there are only a few actual websites that post illegal content, but say things like youtube and facebook haven't done anything wrong as far as I'm concerned. Not to mention, their choice of action is unwise for because of a small minority of people who act illegally, a huge amount of people suffer even if they haven't done anything wrong.

Wikipedia isn't closing down (unless SOPA passes), it shut down yesterday as a response/protest to SOPA and informing the general public about the matter. Barrack Obama, and the European Union are also against SOPA for that matter.

The whole internet won't shut down if SOPA passes, but as I said before, many of our favourite websites will be closed if it passes and we will have less freedom on the internet.

Apparently from one source, the conclusion of whether SOPA passes will be announced this Saturday, but again, I could be wrong (most articles describing the situation on SOPA is really technical.) Sorry if I have posted something wrong, but this is my impression on the situation.