→ "Oops", indeed.

Supporters of SOPA and PIPA have claimed those bills target only “foreign rogue sites.” That is largely untrue, since neither bill limits the new private remedies to foreign sites. But to the extent it is true that the effect of these bills would be felt primarily by foreign sites, it is only because the government is already seizing domestic domain names (and, in the government’s view, a domestic domain name is any domain name that uses a U.S.-based TLD like .com or .net—even those clearly directed at users in a foreign country). […]

It would be one thing if these seizures or the injunctions entered by courts in cases of private enforcement really were limited to the most egregious cases—those involving only “rogue” sites “dedicated to infringing activities.” But they often have not been. In some cases, ICE has seized domain names, held them for many months without any notice to the owner, and then never filed charges. Why not? Because it turns out the domain name owner had, in fact, done nothing wrong. Oops.

SOPA and PIPA are (almost) dead. Now can we talk about the law that already exists?” – Slate Magazine.

Don’t use .com, .net, .org. Don’t use a US-based registrar. Don’t use US-based hosting… what next?

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