I think the SOPA hearings just wrapped up in the last hour or so because the livestream is dead and the HN thread is fresh but somewhat dead. I'm no expert in the matter but today seems like an important day to log in my website because it seems I have a very chill-the-fuck out attitude about all this compared to most residents of the web.

Judging from the way this has been sensationalized I really think it's unlikely SOPA will ever really be passed into its full force because of just how much it would ruin the internet's ecosystem. Congress members might not realize this but the internet depends on its freedom. That's the whole reason it's been growing so rapidly. If websites become as limited and as censored as television stations, the internet will quickly die. Everything the common people in America enjoy has migrated online and away from network television, radio, and everything else the government has gripped by the balls. It's a cause and effect: there is so much cross-over and diversity in what happens online that every website basically breaks the "rules" in one way or another, but that's what makes it all so great. A sanitary, copyright-friendly internet would not be used by anyone nor would it help anyone make more money. Big corporations that have high stakes in copyrights are already resented and untrusted, this would ruin their image further.

Besides, trying to eliminate people copying eachother online would be like trying to eliminate people emulating and repeating eachother in actual life. There would be no way for the judicial system to extend its jurisdiction to this exponentially greater level.

Nothing will come of this. These Congressmen/women have very poor understandings of what they're meddling with. People love the internet so much at this point that if this really did lead to a mass of shutdowns (or even policy overhauls) of websites like Twitter, YouTube, etc, not only would the economy just tank but there would be bigger public outrages than we've seen in decades and everything would be reverted quickly, not to mention a probable wave of hackers attacking the US government in retaliation.

If the internet is going to go more in the direction of copyright-friendliness, it will have to be a long transitionary process. A change this sudden and forced is unnatural and would come with violent reactions. It just won't happen.

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