One thing the United States can truly be proud of is the verbal dexterity of its administrators. In the Senate, SOPA’s precursor was the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act – PROTECT IP. Compared with this, and other hits like USA PATRIOT, DREAM and SAFETY, SOPA looks a little uninspired, especially considering its barnstorming alter ego, the Enforcing and Protecting American Rights Against Sites Intent on Theft and Exploitation Act (E-PARASITE).
In contrast, France named HADOPI after the agency created to police HADOPI - Haute Autorité pour la Diffusion des Œuvres et la Protection des Droits sur Internet – in a remarkably Gallic act of recursive bureaucracy. My own beloved Britain came up with the DEA (Digital Economy Act) – which, its opponents might unkindly suggest, suggested anyone in favour of it might have been smoking something pretty powerful.
