The truth is, there is a small group (MPAA/RIAA members) that can profit immensely from an act that is detrimental to the rest of society, and they pursue it.
It's about as "evil" as one basketball team can consider their opponent "evil"; the title is useless.
But just like on the basketball court, you have to do your best to defeat the other team, because they are doing their best to defeat you. And unlike the basketball court, they have so far had the upper hand every single time (e.g. DMCA, Mickey Mouse Protection Act a.k.a Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, government passes NBC commercials as official position, etc).
SOPA/PIPA is probably the first time they have had a real setback. I think they'll still win, unfortunately -- the overton window keeps shifting.