Piracy Act or Pissing in the Wind?

The new legislation being considered in the U.S.A. Congress is the topic of hot debate.
Look at it for yourself here http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr3261ih/pdf/BILLS-112hr3261ih.pdf

This is nothing less than an attempt to control the internet.
What is the internet?
A network that spans the entire world connecting every individual with access to a computer. The internet is a means to disperse and exchange information even if that information is intellectual property.

It's not for me to jump in and unravel the full implications of this legislation.
It is interesting that the U.S. government feels the need to put a lid on the Pandoras box that they have created. It was specifically for the needs of the U.S. military that the internet came into existence.
We all know by now what the internet is if we don't all know completely what the internet is capable of.

So an attempt to control the internet in the name of intellectual property and prevent the theft thereof and therein the above mentioned, by means specified and implied and understood to be the anti-piracy legislation.

Yada yada yada legalese this and legalese that. In other words put a lid back on the Pandora's box.

Is it possible to control the internet?

A government can certainly target individuals and prosecute them and create fear and terror in the attempt to protect intellectual property rights. That is in fact just what the recording industry has been doing since a college student created Napster.
The lesson that should have been learn't from that dismal and failed exercise is that you cannot go backwards, you cannot suppress new technology. Napster was defeated in the courts but torrent file sharing thrives today.
Maybe this new legislation will be able to break the back of torrent file sharing but then for how long before a new and even more ingenious technology is invented to circumvent the laws that will target specific web sites and individuals on the web?

I think the government would need to kill the web to achieve total success of their desired goal. Maybe killing the web would please the recording industry and probably the movie industry.
So much for progress.