from Huffingtonpost.com

What You Need to Know About the Stop Online Piracy Act in 2012

Alexander Howard

Posted: 12/23/11 12:55 PM ET

A colleague asked me today for a crash course on the “Stop Online Privacy Act” (SOPA). I sent him my feature at the O’Reilly Radar, where I wrote about how Congress is considering anti-piracy bills that could cripple Internet industries and harm digital innovation. The thing is, that post is about 6,000 words long and is now a month out of date. So here’s the briefing I sent back.

First, you should know the major players in the House of Representatives: Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), chairman of House Judiciary Committee. His staffers had a major hand in drafting it. He supports it. So do Reps. Goodlatte and Berman. Rep. Mel Watts is the congressman whose remarks about not understanding helped to fuel headlines like “Dear Congress, It’s No Longer OK To Not Know How The Internet Works” and “Dear Internet: It’s No Longer OK to Not Know How Congress Works,” by Clay Johnson.

Who else supports SOPA? The RIAA, MPAA, big Hollywood and big labor. Ergo, there’s bipartisan coalition of 39 co-sponsors that supports it in the House or Representatives. Why? As always, follow the money. Oh, and all of these companies support SOPA too. . . .continue report

Please watch this excellent video which explains the problems with SOPA

from youtube

H.R.3261 — Stop Online Piracy Act (Introduced in House – IH)

Bill Text – 112th Congress (2011-2012) – H.R.3261.IH