sic1: Given that the Justice Department was able to shut down the file sharing service Megaupload yesterday and have several of its executives arrested on sispicion of piracy would seem to indicate that this legislation is superfluous.

The difference is that that followed a properly-sought formal indictment for criminal activity and thus observed due process. SOPA and PIPA would allow the government to do that without any due process (they also eliminate existing safe harbor laws and other protections). So, worse.

Marta Evry, whose livelihood is threatened by overseas media piracy

Ah, the actual sort of piracy. Whether in digital-only media for sale or in physical goods, this should be addressed. Not that I really imagine additional legislation will help. Enforcement could be better, but certainly can be difficult in the best circumstances. Seizing domain names is not the way to do it. DMCA is bad enough, and overly abused (with impunity) by copyright trolls.

However, most online copyright infringement doesn’t cost content producers anything (not that I endorse it), and in fact, has been shown to promote the content and increase sales. The scary statistics about online piracy costing revenue and jobs have been debunked repeatedly, but certain commercial entities and politicians just keep repeating the same “facts” anyway.