The draconian bill looks to give content-producing companies the right to order a website that they believe is infringing on a copyright to take content off the site. Even if the site only hosts links to content that infringes on a copyright, the owner will have to take it down. Sites that don’t comply could have their advertising and transaction revenue cut off or request that the domain name be blacklisted and rendered inaccessible.
Naturally, this has outraged the internet community. Godaddy.com, a webhosting site, found itself losing much of its business when users found out it was backing the bill, and quickly did an about-face, as CEO Warren Adelman made a statement apologizing, ”Go Daddy opposes SOPA because the legislation has not fulfilled its basic requirement to build a consensus among stake-holders in the technology and Internet communities. Our company regrets the loss of any of our customers, who remain our highest priority, and we hope to repair those relationships and win back their business over time.”
Hacker group Anonymous made its displeasure unknown with a YouTube video aimed at - who else? - Sony, and promised dire consequences should Sony continue its support. Anonymous helped shut down PlayStation Network earlier this year, causing the company not only to have to deal with class action suits over its lack of security, but deal with federal repercussions in multiple countries.
While it seems that Sony, along with Microsoft and Nintendo, has pulled their support of SOPA, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) still backs it - and those three companies are members of ESA, allowing them to support the bill without publicly doing so. Business Software Alliance also supports SOPA, and it counts Microsoft and Apple as its constituency as well. The legislation is currently opposed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Yahoo!, eBay, American Express, Google, Reporters Without Borders, and Human Rights Watch.
Analysis: The ESA is currently embroiled in a major US court case Brown v. EMA/ESA, which is its opposition to a 2005 California law that would have regulated the sale and rental of computer and video games. It’s highly hypocritical that they should be promoting their First Amendment Rights while trying to trample others’.