Free Talk Live

I'm a world-class nerd. But that doesn't mean I understand the nuts and bolts of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), an internet censorship bill on which the House Judiciary Commitee held hearings today.

Worryingly, I'm not alone: As the Washington Post reports, members of the Judiciary Committee that met to amend SOPA tended towards identifying themselves as ignorant of the inner workings of the internet. "If I had a dime for every time someone in the hearing used the phrase 'I'm not a nerd' or 'I'm no tech expert, but they tell me . . .,'" writes the Post's Alexandra Petri, "I'd have a large number of dimes and still feel intensely worried about the future of the uncensored Internet."