Just saw this on Slashdot: a Silicon Valley investment firm that has created over 300 startups believes (as do I) that the only way to permanently kill legislation like SOPA is to kill the industry that sponsors it. They're looking for (and presumably looking to invest in) new ideas for annihilating Hollywood. http://ycombinator.com/rfs9.html

You know, I'm all for killing this bill, and generally keeping the government the heck out of our business, but you know what bugs me about this? Very few, if any, of the people who are all up in arms about this had any complaint about the health care law that was recently passed against the wishes of a majority of the American people. Not only did the government not listen to the people and industry experts on that bill, they had to resort to every trick in the book, basically undermining the rules of our government, in order to get it to pass. And as someone whose wife is a doctor, let me tell you it's every bit as burdensome and damaging to the medical industry as this bill would be to Internet commerce. You can't cherry pick here. You can't say it's fine for the government to step in and take over one industry, then cry foul when they come for your industry. Government intrusion on the private sector is bad in any form, and while necessary in some extreme cases, must be limited as much as possible.

I hope this movement to keep government out of the business of controlling the Internet expands into a greater movement to get the government out of our economy in general. Because if we allow government to continue to expand into this sector of the economy or that, it's only a matter of time before they'll be controlling us all, in whatever industry. Just something to think about.

Well said John!

Yeah, the Gingrich/Romney/Obama health care plan is a disaster. Worse than the already terrible status quo.

I for one support this issue!

I watched a music video the other day with my 7 year old daughter, that aired between Sitcoms. The video was produced to appeal to just about every demographic you can imagine (yes, it even had a mariachi band in a few scenes). It occurred to me that our next trip to Walmart would undoubtedly subject us to merchandise of the Singer (don't ask me her name), on numerous products, in various themes, all reflected in that music video. 

In my mind, SOPA has nothing to do with piracy, per se, but more to do with controlling our consumption and by extension our economy. How many T-Shirts do you think Walmart will sell of my daughters dance recital? Or, posters of Jim Carey's face super imposed on Lady GaGa, in her Poker Face video?

I believe that the Net is being reformatted to streamline intelligence gathering and profiling. So when you purchase that Toy, T-shirt, or email a link to a friend, you are also telling the industry that you are partial to mariachi bands, and therefore it won't be long before the Three Amigos will be remade by Hollywood --in 3D no less. 

I (heart) The Three Amigos.

Tradewars goes POLITICAL..... this will open a whole new can of worms!

New tournament: Team Ron Paul vs. everyone else!