The End of the Internet? What?

So I was curious as to what everybody thinks of the spat going down in Congress over the SOPA, and would like to know what your opinions are. After all, we depend on the internet for this forum and usually as our main means of communication. Do you think SOPA is the first step towards total censorship? Or will those pesky pirates finally be taken down (not likely)?

To be quite honest, piracy isn't a major issue right now. The entertainment industry is "leading the charge" in this, but they have no clue how many pirates are actually out there. They're already rich, what do they care how many pirates there are? This bill just allows them to take further action and practically ban sites like YouTube and MegaUpload from doing what they are known for doing -- providing a database of files and videos that entertain us.

For the gaming industry, what this means is total disaster. Indie companies will fade out of existence. Minecraft practically owes YouTube and the Yogscast it's popularity. Without that, the only gaming companies that will be well known are the ones already out there. Blizzard and Valve for example. Mojang is lucky that it had a huuuuuge success with Minecraft, so everyone will know them. Facebook and twitter also don't like the bill, because they know what's going on.

The government doesn't know what it's doing. They're messing around with stuff they don't even know remotely well. They're fucking up the internet for everyone, when it's supposed to be a system the entire world uses. The Great Firewall of China is one thing, but goddamnit this is AMERICA. In other words, this is a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution. Therefore, it is unconstitutional.

...

Jumbled mess of emotions. =3=

I completely understand. :/ And though I've read the Congress' statements about how we 'completely misunderstand the act itself' and how they're saying all this stuff about how the entertainment industry is taking away our rights by censorship is just paid for propaganda from Google . . . I think they're all out for their own self-interests.

And you're right, pirates aren't an issue because there will always be pirates, because some people aren't idiots and filesharing is not difficult. I'm not sure that this means the death of indie game companies however, 'cause like I said there will always be pirates and we often spread things by word of mouth in one way or another. The thing about the internet is that it is a very robust and diverse system, and there are quite a few ways to connect to a site or communicate through it. Imagine a kind of pirate radio, if you would, like when Britain tried to ban rock music from its stations. Obviously, we still have British punk rock, I see no reason why indie games couldn't flourish the same way.