This is unfortunately a very American-centric and hacker/san-fransisco-centric view.
All the tech for SOPA has been build and used for years in countries such as China and Iran. They already have their great firewalls and have had them for a long time.
What's more, a lot of the tech they used was built and sold to them by american companies. This war was lost probably 10 to 15 years ago.
All this bill is about is dog-fooding your own censorship products. ;)
And much of that firewall technology is already built in the US. For example, if NetApp had no qualms selling (indirectly) systems to the Syria government despite US export bans, I don't think they would have any qualms about selling to the US government legally.
This is exactly correct. It should also be pointed out that while the nerd-rage surrounding SOPA is all completely valid the same type of response was seen during the build up to the votes on the DMCA and congress had no trouble passing the DMCA. I think it's highly unlikely that SOPA or PIPA will be modified in any meaningful way and will likely be passed.
All the tech for SOPA has been build and used for years in countries such as China and Iran. They already have their great firewalls and have had them for a long time.
What's more, a lot of the tech they used was built and sold to them by american companies. This war was lost probably 10 to 15 years ago.
All this bill is about is dog-fooding your own censorship products. ;)