What SOPA Says About Congress

Although I did have a brief and not-so-glorious career with a big IT firm, I probably don’t qualify as an expert on the exact consequences of the new intellectual property bill--called either SOPA or PROTECT IP--that’s currently moving through Congress.

That said, I do think it’s important not so much for what it would do--many of the opponents are probably overheated in their claims about it--but for what it says about Congress.

In a time of record unemployment, economic stagnation, significant global challenges, and a hugely consequential election, SOPA/PROTECT IP seems like one of the few major measures with significant bipartisan support. Whatever one thinks of the bill (and, personally, I think it’s a bad idea), I don’t think that anyone can really argue that software piracy is among the top ten issues--or even top fifty--things that Congress ought to be worrying about. The fact that Congress is obsessed with this shows, quite simply, that it’s not working.