The EFF and many other groups and individuals are speaking out about how dangerous SOPA and other similar acts are to the Internet. One important concept that many of the writers of these bills fail to undertand is that they are killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. By stifling the free expression, creativity, and entrepreneurial aspects that were the basis of creating the Internet and the messages and businesses carried on it, they will essentially force those who value those concepts to divert their interests and talents elsewhere.
Laws like SOPA do more to squelch meaningful expression than can be measured. Like DMCA before it, SOPA’s “Chilling Effect” will prevent many from taking the chances necessary to set up new businesses and promote new ideas. In today’s economy, this is madness. The concrete examples already being brought forward by people like Harold Feld and others, show that large ISPs and social networking sites already are swamped with take down demands, so most don’t even bother to follow the current law that requires investigation and blocking of only the purportedly infringing content rather than the entire site. The law further calls for reinstatement of the content if the poster shows that the content is not infringing. In actual practice, it doesn’t seem to matter whether the poster responds or not, the gatekeepers ignore the responses and keep the content blocked. Since the gatekeepers are not following the current laws, does anyone really think that they would be any better at weighing speech rights vs. accusations if given even more liberty to shut down businesses based on a mere complaint?
Have a read at how Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing feels the proposed law will also cause a direct threat to technical innovation in his article: How SOPA will attack the Internet\’s infrastructure and security
