sopa opera: An abuse of power or a money-saving Pirate destroyer?

What is SOPA? It’s the Stop Online Piracy Act, and it’s heralded as way to curb online piracy (I hope you didn’t come here for in-depth coverage.) The bigger story is that it’s ticked off Justin Bieber and inspired AOL, Mozilla, eBay, Facebook, Google, Linkedin, Twitter, Yahoo! and Zynga to sign a letter stating, in part, that:

See why Boulder-based VC Brad Feld says NO to SOPA.

See why the MPAA thinks Brad is wrong.

Now back to Bieber. When he was informed about SOPA he said he wanted its Congressional sponsor handcuffed and jailed. Interestingly, the Canadian pop star is being used as an example of SOPA’s side effects. MoveOn.org posted that, “For example, if you (or Justin Bieber) wanted to post a video to YouTube of yourself singing a Beatles song, a record company could force the Department of Justice to shut down YouTube.” Now SOPA has become the “Bieber Bill” and the battle lines have been drawn.

So who’s for SOPA? Cable giant Comcast is pushing for it, as well as drug maker Pfizer, record and movie companies, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Here’s the surprise proponent: The International Association of Firefighters. They say that piracy uses valuable tax dollars that could be supporting emergency services.

Texas Congressman Lamar Smith, who’s the chairman of the Judiciary Committee hearing the SOPA case, released a statement saying, “This bill focuses not on technology but on preventing those who engage in criminal behavior from reaching directly into the U.S. market to harm American consumers. We cannot continue a system that allows criminals to disregard our laws and import counterfeit and pirated goods across our physical borders.”

Smith’s political counter seems to be Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, who says he’ll filibuster the bill in the Senate.

So where do you stand with SOPA? Is it an overreaching attempt by government and corporations to control the Internet, or is it an important step to stop those engaging in criminal behavior? Whichever it is, the bottom line is that we all need to keep up on this stuff and know what’s going on. This is big.