The Senate's Protect IP Act (PIPA) and its counterpart in the House, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) ostensibly seek to address, as David Carr explains, the real problem of "rogue Web sites — most operating from overseas — offering illicit downloads of movies, music and more." Congress was heavily influenced by the big media companies to do something to protect the entertainment industry from piracy, but the legislation is so poorly and so broadly written that it would do little to address the issue while wreaking havoc on the free flow of information. In addition to Carr's primer, Emily Crockett has an excellent piece which explains how these bills could lead to a censored, privatized Internet (with an update here). And you can read about how the mainstream media is ignoring the issue here.
If you haven't yet contacted your representative or senators about this legislation, you can use this form to e-mail your representative, and this one for your Senators.
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Sadly, many in Congress may well be in favor of a censored, privatized Internet and would welcome the infusion of donations from Big Media that would undoubtedly flow from passage of this type of legislation.
While PIPA and SOPA may not pass in their current, sloppily, hastily crafted form, absent a wholesale revolution in the makeup of the Legislative Houses, the entrenched monopolistic forces of media are likely to get their way sooner rather than later.
The one bright spot is the incredible power of Moore's Law, which raises the possibility that the Internet they shut down can be almost immediately replaced by one they can't control.
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