SACRAMENTO, CA - The battle over SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act now before Congress, is bringing money, political clout and two very different views of the measure into the mainstream.
On one side are Hollywood studios and record companies demanding a better way to shut down overseas piracy sites like Pirate Bay in Sweden and others that illegally distribute film and songs over the web.
"Your product is being stolen through the wonders of modern technology, and of course, you don't like that," University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law Professor John Sims said.
Studios and record companies lose billions of dollars each year because of pirated films and songs by overseas companies.
SOPA would allow the Justice Department and the holders of copyrights to force internet providers and search engines to cut off access to sites that share movies illegally.
But those sites are far from the reach of U.S. law.
"They're sticking out their tongues, saying, 'You can't get us,'" said Sims.
That's led the entertainment industry to go after intermediaries, like internet providers to force them shut them down illegal sites, essentially pushing them into a new role, said Sims.
"And they're going to be forced to become law enforcement officials as a way of cutting off this trade," Sims said.
But Sims and critics of the bills before the House and Senate worry about the kinds of censorship issues that could follow.
"If somebody asks for a connection to that piracy website in Singapore, tell them it doesn't exist, tell them you can't find it," said Sims, by way of example.
Consumer groups and major companies like Google and Yahoo are joining thousands of internet users in opposing SOPA and the potentially chilling effect it could have.
Many internet users feel caught in the middle and confused.
"Does this mean that we're going to lose our right to be able to access freely? Does this mean that there's going to be an increased cost?" Sacramento resident Norman Fong asked.
Others wonder how reining in pirate sites might affect the internet's openness and vitality and whether it may already be too late to effectively end much of the current piracy.
"Because if I want something bad enough, no matter what, I'm going to get it. And that's how people think, if they want something bad enough, no matter what you do, you're not going to stop them," Sacramento resident Monique Pierre said.
The legislation has a wide coalition supporters, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, organized labor and major studios.
Sims worries the effect of enlisting internet providers and search engines to deny access to sites could be a slippery road to censorship. He cited China's wall of electronic censors as an example of where it could lead.
"China says, 'Ask about Tiananmen Square? There is no such thing...if you want talk about that massacre, we don't know what you're talking about, you can't connect to that,'" said Sims.
Opponents of the bills have sent a petition to the White House, with 34,000 signatures, asking for a veto of the online piracy bill, and the White House has said it will respond early next month.
President Barack Obama has not yet taken a position on the bill.
The House Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on the bill in the next legislative session.
The Senate's version passed in May and will come up for a full vote in January.
News10/KXTV