These SOPA hearings are beyond awful. The fact that the hearings, at least as I have found them at 6pm CST, are about who has standing to sue in the US, nothing more. This feels like a group of people standing around trying to decide to roast hotdogs or marshmallows as the Library of Alexandria burns.

This letter, which carries the signatures of many the designers and builders of the Internet (TCP/IP, BIND, DNS, HTTP, MIME, etc.), clearly lays out the damage that this bill would cause.

What I find infuriating about the discussions that are happening right now regarding SOPA, is that the committee members are so glaringly ignorant of the Internet. There is no discussion of how it would work with DNS, what burden that would put on hosting companies, schools, organizations, etc. In short, they don’t appear to know how the Internet works.

I cannot help but worry that there are influencers promoting this bill who have a very narrow interest in the Internet. They see it as an economic threat to an old business model (movies, music) and it must be turned into a safe and effective mechanism to secure an income stream in the future.