Senator Patrick Leahy says, "The PROTECT IP Act will not affect Wikipedia, will not affect Reddit, and will not affect any website that has any legitimate use."
Do not believe this for one second. The way the bill is written, ANY site that even *links* to a site accused of infringement can be shut down.
What that means is that if you put a link here to a site that someone claims is "infringing", then THIS site can be censored and taken down.
And all you have to do is claim there's infringement- no proof is required, no court hearing needed, no due process, nothing. Just the accusation is enough.
Yeah, no way that could be abused, right? Certainly not by Hollywood, or corporations, or competitors, or random cranks on the internet. Yeah, that would never happen.
And of course the government would never, ever use that power to stifle dissent, suppress information, or to punish people or groups it doesn't like.