A generalization. There are pirating sites hosted in Russia that are untouchable by the US and countless Chinese knockoff companies (although I support the knockoffs of Apple chargers because they are normally overly expensive). And SOPA will allow the US government to force US ISPs to block offending IPs, including foreign ones.
I don't support or oppose SOPA, but I think it's perfectly fine (and good to prevent piracy) for the US to be able to block just foreign websites. They are not protected under our US constitution.
Ahh, SOPA. The big internet geek hoe-down topic of the day. This is probably a flamebait topic, but eh...that's never stopped me before.
For one, I don't trust any legislation that nixes due process. You're basically handing copyright holders the ability to shut down any site at will. Considering record labels have already abused the hell out of the DMCA, giving them even more power seems like a tremendously bad idea.
It's like putting a bunch of fat kids in charge of the cookie jar, trusting that, in the end, they'll do the right thing.
Secondly, blocking foreign domains at the DNS level to prevent piracy is like ripping up the interstate highway system to make it more difficult for bootleggers to get from point to point. Any hardcore pirate has the knowledge to circumvent a DNS block. They can either use a proxy, or reroute to an offshore DNS server to get their pirated goods. So the pirates are still pirating, but your average people are suddenly finding out they're not be able to get to some of their favorite sites because some guy on the same domain offered up a link to the new Ke$ha single.
And that's not even getting into the huge, debilitating headache DNS manipulation will give our ISPs. Or the hit to security, for that matter, since you'll have whole tons of people rerouting out to uncontrolled, foreign DNS servers.
The whole thing is ignorance from top to bottom.
