(Image Source: Fight for the Future)

BY JIM FLINK

You're watching multisource tech news analysis from Newsy.

PIPA and SOPA.  Don’t know ‘em?  You will. They’re the two anti-piracy bills --- now working their way through the Senate and the House, respectively. Creating backlash in cyberspace.

CNET summarizes SOPA like this.

“The controversial Hollywood-backed copyright bill allows injunctions to be filed against ‘any’ person, nonprofit organization, or company that distributes a ‘product or service’ that can be used to circumvent or bypass blockades erected against alleged pirate Web sites…”

The big concern -- is the law of unintended consequences which might result from such a sweeping bill.

On its website, Mashable editor in chief Lance Ulanoff and Entertainment Editor Christina Warren address some of those concerns -- like changes to the safe harbor provision for ISPs.

“Big on line entities like Google, like Facebook and others that host other people’s content.

Right if you host it you can be liable.

But the big thing with safe harbor was saying just because you host it, or just because you offer people access to the web, doesn’t mean you’re responsible for what they do on the web, and that’s what SOPA would aim to change.”

Which has created a bit of an uproar. The big question for many -- who’s behind the legislation?

Digital Trends published a list of 439 companies supporting SOPA.

“From the pro-SOPA side, we’ve heard much from organizations like the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the US Chamber of Commerce … But far too little light has shone on the hundreds of organizations that continue to support SOPA, despite the staggering dangers it holds for the Internet as we know it.”

Since the release of that list -- and a high-profile attack on list-maker Go-Daddy sponsored by Redditers, the pressure has been rising on companies to back off their support of SOPA. 

Tech Dirt says -- that pressure seems to be working.

“It wouldn't surprise me to see some of the companies start backing down. In fact, we're already hearing that some of the companies on the list (especially the law firms) have no idea how they got on the list in the first place. Some of the law firms may have clients who support the law, but that's a big difference from actually supporting the law themselves.” 

Others are calling the SOPA opposition movement -- a witch hunt. One blogger for Redfin says, intimidating those who support SOPA, isn’t the way to go.

“The opposition ,...has united behind the theme of free speech … If you actually believe in free speech, and not simply the free distribution of other people’s intellectual property, you should let journalists, law firms and investors exercise their rights to it alongside your own. And yes, working on a bill in an open, democratic process is a valid expression of speech.”

But GamePolitics says, the odd bedfellows coming out of this effort -- makes its head spin.

“There is an odd mix of special interests groups in this list that would make both sides of the isle twitch with revulsion. You know who’s not on the list anywhere? The citizens of the United States of America.”

SOPA is currently on hold in the House until sometime early next year.