PIPA & SOPA are two intellectual property bills that are still circulating in the comittees. At this point the Republican retreat has postponed the discussion until next month. Without going into too many details of the Bill, essentially web hosts (blogs, forums and youtube) would have to police their own sites and they would be held responsible for any violations of intellectual property laws.
Honestly, If I were a host I would simply make all content submissions be proven that they are not in violation of the laws and kick the rest. That would lower my risk and be cheapest. The best way to prove that content is not in violation is to get it copyrighted or trademarked, aside from the few exceptions. Ultimately, this means that people who post a lot of content online would buy more trademarks and copyrights, which means more money for the government. I think they think this what will happen and why many are backing.
More than that, for all you "Big Brother" haters out there, many sites will be required to keep records of every visitor and search. This means when you are typing into google "how to kill," because you have a mice problem, and you see "my wife" in the options, so you look at it because it's funny, that google will have a record of it that can easily be procured.
Although intellectual property has to be protected, I think this option feels a little more like a very cold place a many years ago. Some people think going there is the ultimate goal of our leader/s. I think that I have typed a few embarrasing things into google and and I don't want some idiot hacker to be able to get that info out.
