SOPA and PIPA attempt to blacklist infringing content by removing domain records from the DNS. The Internet consists of thousands of domain name servers (DNS). There is no shutoff switch for the internet. It’s like trying to plug a bullet riddled roof in the rain.
The equivalent would be as if Syrian president al-Assad threatened that the government would cut off oxygen and rain to cities in rebellion. Sure, it would be possible with high tech jets, chemicals, and defoliants, but the effort would need to be sustained and continuous. In the end, it would fail.
Even if SOPA and PIPA removed domain names from US DNS, international DNS could just route traffic around US government compliant DNS and business would continue as normal for sites with international sources. The government could physically shutoff a website’s server if it was located in the US, but that action would only affect sites (like our’s) based off of one server. US bases users would use proxies and other methods to direct their traffic through international DNS not affected by SOPA and PIPA to get to their information.
The United States of America do not need SOPA and PIPA. These laws are meant for repressive and totalitarian governments such as China. Attempting — and failing — to enforce the bills would only damage the USA’s image on the world stage. Countries with questionable governments would see it as an OK to create their own censoring laws. Other countries will witness the US government’s failure to control its own people and use it as a reason to further show that the government is corrupt and heavy handed.
Update: Looks like the vote’s been called off. Good job to those who contacted their Senators and Congressional Representatives.
Senator Feinstein responded to my attempt to contact her through email. She had some reasons about how the bills didn’t interfere with the 1st amendment. *
*Obviously she hasn’t read my message because it had nothing to do with the 1st amendment.
