The Rebranding Of SOPA: Now Called 'Notice And Staydown'

I'm just going to repeat what I said on Reddit:

THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WOTH SOPA!

SOPA would have changed some aspects of copyright law. Some idiot bloggers now conclude whenever Congress does so much as look in the general direction of copyright law that this means the second coming of SOPA.

When the EFF says SOPA is coming back, then it would be worth your time to take a serious look at the possibility. When it is Techdirt, you have a bigger problem you should deal with--figuring out what terrible life choices you made that turned you into someone who takes Techdirt seriously.

SOPA would have given big copyright-accumulating companies the power to arbitrarily cut off revenue to sites of their choice, by making accusations of copyright infringement, with no penalty for false accusations and no compensation to victims of false accusations. In essence, Hollywould could have silenced or bankrupted any internet site or service at will, with impunity.

This new proposal would produce a similar effect by a different mechanism. It would empower big copyright-accumulating companies to impose on any site of their choice, a requirement to develop, install and maintain vastly expensive systems to detect, recognize and filter unauthorized files. The costs would prevent small operators from posting any user-sourced content, and the onerous interference with independent operations and new barrier to publishing would severely impair free-speech rights.

In a political system where lobbying is allowed, a wealthy special-interest group can demand changes to enhance its power and revenue, and succeed, even if the harm to the rest of society is astronomically worse than any benefit to the special interest group, because the harm is dispersed and the profit is concentated.