The Stop Online Piracy Act is an item of legislation that the entertainment industry wants most desperately, but virtually anyone else with an interest in the internet (isn't that all of us?) opposes.
While the bill has bipartisan support, it also has countless critics, there's significant public opposition. Roll Call warned that SOPA could be used to stifle political free speech and shut down entire websites "without any involvement by a court." The current bill would dismantle the "safe harbor" protections of the DMCA, protections that allow sites like Facebook and YouTube to operate without taking responsibility for infringing actions of users, who, after all, are responsible for what they upload.
People feel so strongly about maintaining internet freedom, many suffer a backlash for supporting SOPA. For example, GoDaddy reversed its position on SOPA after the company reportedly suffered from the exodus of tens of thousands of customers.
David Carr's piece over at the NYT gives a good perspective on this.
More over at http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/how-sopa-threatens-the-move-the-cloud-183050
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