The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

I did read the legislation, I just didn't want to litter my response with large quotes but as you requested I will attempt to be more specific, i am sorry I rushed through my response before. "network providers and Internet advertising services requiring such entities to forward the notification and suspend their services to such an identified site unless the site's owner, operator, or domain name registrant, upon receiving the forwarded notification, provides a counter notification explaining that it is not dedicated to engaging in specified violations." This is the government forcing businesses to shut down other businesses and other private sites based on a guilty until proven innocent claim. This is clearly not due process and this allows too much potential for regulation of the internet to be abused. "Requires online service providers, Internet search engines, payment network providers, and Internet advertising services, upon receiving a copy of a court order relating to an AG action, to carry out certain preventative measures including withholding services from an infringing site or preventing users located in the United States from accessing the infringing site. Requires payment network providers and Internet advertising services, upon receiving a copy of such an order relating to a right holder's action, to carry out similar preventative measures." A complete block on a website is unethical. It goes beyond copyright problems. Sites like wikipedia who have hundreds of thousands of links may be potentially shut down due to a link that is posted linking the site with infringed materials. Preventative measures when it comes to regulations of the internet are unacceptable. We must be very delicate on how we regulate an information super highway to not throw the baby out with the bathwater. This bill attempts to do some really just things but allows for too much and needs to be voted down in favor of smaller, more specific measures developed by people who understand how this system works, not solely politicians. "Provides immunity from liability for service providers, payment network providers, Internet advertising services, advertisers, Internet search engines, domain name registries, or domain name registrars that take actions required by this Act or otherwise voluntarily block access to or end financial affiliation with such sites." This protects the possibility of a tyrannical service provider from shutting down a website arbitrarily until the website is proven innocent. "Permits such entities to stop or refuse services to certain sites that endanger public health by distributing prescription medication that is adulterated, misbranded, or without a valid prescription." Public health is very vague and though i agree a lot of this homeopathy craziness is unethical this bill is the incorrect way to regulate these things on the internet. Copyright laws are out of date and need to be corrected this bill is a start to bring the issue to the table but approaches it in the wrong way, due process is not there because it protects service providers in taking preventative measures before the claims are ever fully substantiated. I still believe that the claim of we should listen to the compaines who know this area best are the ones who should be working in conjuction with the congress. We HAVE to protect these companies from losing money because they deserve it though we must protect the sanctity and security of the internet. Also if you understand technology you would see that Steve Jobs was never a tech person, his only benefit to the tech community was he had an uncanny knack to be really really picky about how his products looked and were interacted with rather than really understanding technology, like the internet. Also if you have read his biography his judgement in many areas of life are extremely flawed.