An old remark was, "Never argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel", of course, meaning that never argue in print with a newspaper. Well, now there should

An old remark was, "Never argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel", of course, meaning that never argue in print with a newspaper. Well, now there should be an update: "Never argue in public with a community that communicates at a trillion bits per second.", of course, meaning that it's not wise for someone in Congress to anger most of the US users of the Internet. So, just from these two remarks, SOPA and bills like it should have little chance of passage. Indeed, there have been remarks in the technical news that in the last week or so the SOPA proponents backed into an "Internet buzz saw". Or, what community could hope to beat the US Internet users in ability to collect good data on both FAQs and fine details about SOPA, get names, phone numbers, and office addresses of SOPA proponents in Congress, and make phone calls and send e-mail messages and letters either on paper or via FAX? I can believe "buzz saw". I have not wanted to fire all my political ammunition against SOPA yet because I fear that showing all the leading arguments against SOPA will, yes, result in the death of SOPA but also in the rise, as a phoenix, of Son of SOPA with new dangers and, net, just as dangerous. But from what I have seen in just a little investigation, e.g., as in http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8003799.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8003799.stm with Page last updated at 14:29 GMT, Friday, 17 April 2009 15:29 UK Court jails Pirate Bay founders apparently existing copyright law, in this case in Sweden, and routine legal action have been sufficient actually to put in jail all of the founders of Pirate Bay not 'on the lam". And, Pirate Bay didn't actually host any movies or recorded music but just had links to Torrent sources. So, it sounds to me like existing copyright law is close to strong enough for the purposes of the MPAA/RIAA. Actually, being able actually to lock up the Pirate Bay founders sounds to me like the current copyright law is already too strong, that is, too much weakening of freedom of the press and freedom of speech: To see this, an analogy would be to lock up authors of crime and spy novels because they provide information that a criminal might use. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dame Agatha Christie, and Tom Clancy did nothing violent but did provide information that might let others be violent; Pirate Bay sent no movies or music but did provide information that would let others receive such. Heck, it sounds like with the position of the MPAA/RIAA we should also lock up authors of books on physics, chemistry, and engineering because such books can be used to build a wide range of weapons. Gee, let's see: Via Google we should be able to find an effective recipe for classic gun powder. One of the key ingredients is saltpeter, that is, potassium nitrate (KNO3). Hmm .... There it is: Can buy it 5 pounds at a time at Amazon. Now, as I recall, all we need is some sulfur and charcoal. So, by the standards of the MPAA/RIAA, we should lock up the founders of Google and Amazon? My father used to buy ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) in small pellets in 100 pound bags. He used it as a lawn fertilizer, and the results were dramatic: The grass turned dark green, got dense, and jumped; we had to mow the grass about every other day; Mom was proud to have the greenest lawn in the neighborhood! Ammonium nitrate was readily available if only because a few miles into the country people were growing cotton, and NH4NO3 did similar things for cotton. But, as we should expect from all that nitrogen, NH4NO3 can be one heck of an explosive. Just ask some of the people in Galveston, TX! And apparently if mix NH4NO3 with fuel oil, then can pull down some buildings. So, by the standards of the MPAA/RIAA we should lock up the founders of lawn and garden stores and heating oil suppliers? I'm against stealing copies of movies, recorded music, etc., but I'm not for shooting the Internet in the gut, and shooting the Internet in the gut IS what the MPAA/RIAA with SOPA would do. Protection of books and music have had to evolve with technology from the printing press, music recording, radio, TV, tape recorders, CD and DVD burners, VCRs, set-top boxes, Blockbuster, Netflix, etc. and, net, will have to continue to evolve. Net, I don't condone improper use, don't want to hurt the Internet, don't have easy answers for all of the concerns of the MPAA/RIAA, but wish them well; a reasonable solution should be possible without shooting the Internet in the gut. If not, then I'm sorry MPAA/RIAA: The Internet, PDF files, etc. have seriously hurt publishing on paper, but those publishers didn't shoot the Internet in the gut; your business model might have to evolve. Efforts of the MPAA/RIAA to shoot the Internet in the gut did and will encounter a "buzz saw".