For illustrations of potential end-user downsides of SOPA and ProtectIP/PIPA, and to do something about them (yes, you), see..

GetYourCensorOn
http://getyourcensoron.com/

Stop American Censorship
http://americancensorship.org/

For what a bunch of folks involved in engineering the Internet think, see..

An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the U.S. Congress
December 15, 2011 | By Parker Higgins and Peter Eckersley
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/12/internet-inventors-warn-against-sopa-and-pipa

For some further commentary, see the below (this is just some highlights, you don’t have to look far to find a bunch more out there)..

Some Data On How Much The Big Media Firms Are Donating To SOPA/PIPA Sponsors
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111203/00494716961/some-data-how-much-big-media-firms-are-donating-to-sopapipa-sponsors.shtml

YouTube rejects UMG demand – Megaupload Mega Song returns
http://www.nnsquad.org/archives/nnsquad/msg06203.html

SOPA-Rope-a-dope (by Stewart Baker)
http://volokh.com/2011/12/14/sopa-rope-a-dope/

Technical Comments on Mandated DNS Filtering Requirements of H. R. 3261 (“SOPA”)
http://www.circleid.com/posts/20111211_technical_comments_on_mandated_dns_filtering_requirements_sopa/

My colleagues Michael Barrett, Andy Steingruebl, and Bill Smith recently authored a whitepaper..

Combating Cybercrime: Principles, Policies, and Programs

..and Michael blogged an executive summary here.

The executive executive summary is:

Technical measures alone cannot significantly address the cybercrime trends, we believe action is needed, and are proposing a multi-faceted regulatory approach. We’re occasionally asked to “list the three things you want us to do.” And while we’re hesitant to say any of these initiatives is more important than any other, in general, we list:

• Increase investment in cybercrime law enforcement.
• Start the Internet’s version of the National Transportation Safety Board.
• Fix the Cybercrime Convention to include both extradition and trying cases in the country in which alleged criminals reside.

Also, Dave Piscitello, ‘The Security Skeptic’, reviewed the whitepaper here.

=JeffH sez check it out 🙂

Susan Landau, with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working and co-authoring some documents (e.g.: a, b, c), has new book that’s now available: Surveillance or Security? The Risks Posed by New Wiretapping Technologies.

Additionally, NPR ran an All Things Considered piece yesterday on the wiretapping topic and interviewed Susan for it.

Also, she’s blogging (here) at the the Huffington Post on these and overall security/policy topics.

=JeffH sez check it out 🙂