The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), also known as H.R. 3261, introduced in the United States House of Representatives, expands the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Now before the House Judiciary Committee, it builds on the similar PRO-IP Act of 2008 and the corresponding Senate bill, the Protect IP Act.

The House Judiciary Committee held hearings on SOPA on November 16 and December 15, 2011. The Committee is scheduled to continue debate when Congress returns from its winter recess.

SOPA is meant to fight pirate, counterfeit and spam sites. But it goes way beyond anything in current law, including the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, that gives copyright owners an avenue for taking down infringing sites. SOPA is meant to kill everything bad. It gives the U.S. Attorney General the ability effectively to shut down a foreign site by getting an ISP, search engines, ad networks and/or payment network providers to stop doing business with the infringing site. There's also an avenue for private sites to ask other sites to be taken down in the same way.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2011/12/22/the-story-of-sopa-so-far-2/