If the legislation SOPA/PIPA that's currently under review - and may even come up for a vote with so called "bipartisan" support .. in less than a week. ... a possibly surprising effect of it may be to disrupt telephone systems.
Many VOIP phone systems switch calls across the public internet and the calls traverse the public internet as data call. These phone systems have web based front ends.
There is no distinction between web based front ends, web applications - all are levelled out into a single type of potential legal target. And if the infrastructure that the legislation calls for - is put in place, then that target can be shut down automatically.
The legislation , on its face is supposed to assist in blocking certain foreign sites and stopping piracy. The idea is that the US could shut down external sites, or at least stop their revenue. But this revenue, like VOIP phone systems - are run as web based services.
What mechanism, exactly - would shut down the web service in question? It would have to be software developed by either a single entity - or the end user - and it would have to publish a login to the US Dept. of Justice.
This is not an anti-piracy infrastructure - it's an anti-internet infrastructure. Whenever the clammy hands of the corporate paymasters touch routers , switches or servers - they usually don't do a good job making them simpler and faster.
If we install SOPA and PIPA infrastructure, I promise you not only will there be dropped websites but there will also be dropped telephone calls. I would vote we drop the legislation first, and keep the ability to run web services without censorship or a kill switch in someone else's hand.
I find the reasoning for SOPA and PIPA , that it even exists at all - to be extremely disturbing. The rationale for why it even exists at all is that there is supposedly lost revenue in all of this copying that's supposedly going on. But how?
Spending on entertainment is at an all time high. Apparently, when people can see a preview of something - they become intrigued and want to buy a ticket to the movie.
Or buy the copyrighted material.
What is it, in the entertainment industry - that makes them want welfare for the wealthy? I smell a lobbyist somewhere.