Will it matter what the public thinks? Hardly. And all the government has to do in order to change the opinion is to say "but think about teh TERRORISTS!!11!1", and the public will let them do anything they want, including listening in to every phone call, every e-mail, monitoring every book loaned from the library, taking your fingerprints at the airports, etc. And then putting preassure on other countries (like European) to play ball and take similar actions, and cooperate.
This SOPA or PIPA or whatever is just one of many measures taken to censor, restrict, monitoring and controlling the Internet. The public doesn't really know what's happening, some don't care, some opposes it but can't do anything about it, some other opposes it but get converted as soon as the "terrorist card" is being played out (which is a universal card you can play out that trumps anything else in any and all context). The totalitarian Orwell society is in large parts already here, these SOPA/PIPA are merely pieces in the bigger jigsaw puzzle that's almost finished.
I don't really care what happens in the USA, as long as they keep the madness at their border. But I hate it when this kind of **** is being forced onto us living in the free world, just because the US is a long term traditional ally and important trading partner. I hate it to see my children having to grow up and live in an Orwell world shaped by George Bush Junior's paranoia and his other weaknesses. I'm not an American, and living in my own country - why should my life, both on and off the Internet, be affected by mad US legislation?
What about if you ARE an American and you'd like the power hungry elites from sticking their thumb in every European countries fifth point of contact and working its hand like a finger puppet? We are reaping what we sowed in the 60s and 70s with ignorant sheeple sucking at the tit of tiny subsidy while we build up the corporatist/theocratic state in the perfect mockery of 1930s Germany, minus the overt anti-semitism. What can you do, when people in this country can't even find neighboring STATES on a map, let alone another country?
Can you europeans do us a solid? Stop encouraging our imperialist bankers, stop loaning us money, stop trading with us, restore your economies, quit sending us troops to "help" us? The sooner we just collapse under the weight of stupid fiscal policy, the better.
