So, SOPA has been stopped for now, fine, right? Well kinda.
The European Union is scheduled to discuss ACTA this week, and ACTA, can potentially be even worse than SOPA. ACTA, or
Anti-Counterfeting Trade Agreement as the full name is, was made in 2007, to stop fake medications and other physical items. Like a fake Fulham FC t-shirt.
However, ACTA has been changed many many times since then, and the final version is ready to be discussed in the US, Canada, Japan, South-Korea and the EU (26th of January). And to be honest, stopping fake clothes and stuff to get in is fair enough, but there are several parts of the law that describes how internet-distribution, and technology should be controlled and monitored. And how the companies providing internet should monitor all activity to check if any illegal files are being shared.
Another thing that is interesting to note is that this law has been shipped through the legal systems with great efforts to keep it secret, so it will be easier to force it through. And it has been decided by a selected group of industrial nations, but on the outside of organizations that usually deals with this stuff, such as
World Intellectual Property Organization and World Trade Organization.
If this goes through, the internet, as we know it today will be very different, and it might be a bigger change than SOPA would've been.
You can read much more information, in much greater dept and more in a more correct way here.
I'm just saying... the Power some nations, and not at least, some companies can get if any of these laws are passed... Well, hello China!