I read an interesting article this morning on how sentors’ support of SOPA and PROTECT-IP is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the technology involved. It’s an interesting read and includes a video of a senator asking if Google can come up with a filter for child pornography, then why can’t it detect copyright infringement? 

There’s a very simple, non-technical answer explaining why this is impossible.

He didn’t listen to it.

He then asks, “why not hire some whiz kids out of college?”

The answer is simply that any college-educated engineer who is smart enough to build a system that can detect any type of copyright material and _selectively take down that material from _any website will also be smart enough to know that building this SOPATRON would be unethical. They would understand that SOPA is the product of big-business lobby groups trying to legislate their way into a future where their business models don’t need to adapt to reality.

More than anything, I think this is why Reddit, Google, Facebook, et al are so opposed to SOPA. Yes, it will hurt their business, but their leaders also know that SOPA is the wrong thing to do.