After SOPA was initially killed off in 2012 we had to content with CISPA. Another version of SOPA with slightly different wording but the same ultimate design. And after that was killed, we breathed a sigh of relief we'd put it down again.
But the US government wants to bring part of it back for a third go around at becoming law. The specific part they're after is the part that makes streaming any copy written work into a felony.
Online Petitions may not work, but they spread awareness, so they may make people talk to their local senator, or government about a problem they learned about in a petition.
Plus, your local government representative can use the online petition as a way to show something is not popular with a large group of people.
The signature threshold has been reached. So it will get a response from the White House.
In all truth, I think that this will be one of those things that will be paired with a totally unrelated bill that Obama has to sign into law and so, by signing one, he is signing both, and that regardless of how angry people are about this, this will become law.
This is exactly how other fucked up things have been signed into law since he got elected. His opposition fights him tooth and nail on a certain issue, and then they offer a 'compromise' which is the bill he wants combined with whatever it is they want, and the only way he gets what he wants, is by them getting what they want.
So I am sure that SOPA will eventually become law one way or another. It'll most likely be paired with a bill related to either Obamacare, or something regarding the restriction of the NSA or something like that..
Kind of like how NC signed a bill into law restricting abortions that was paired with a motorcycle-related bill.
