I am writing on January 18, 2012 – SOPA Internet Blackout Day. Today, thousands of Web-site operators have temporarily deleted their pages to protest the SOPA and PIPA legislation that is currently under consideration by Congress.

The protest seems to be superfluous. Over the past seven days President Obama has expressed opposition to the proposed bills, the bills' sponsors have removed the DNS-blocking provision that sparked the most concern, and a few former supporters in Congress have responded to Silicon Valley pressure by deleting their names from the list of sponsors.

SOPA and PIPA have been gutted. My prediction is that the bills will not pass. Even if they do, they will be rendered mostly harmless. It's Internet 1, Hollywood 0. Right?

Right...I guess. Sort of.

I've been as vocal a critic of the SOPA bills as anyone. I've warned of the bills' excesses here and here and here. My voice was part of an Internet-wide chorus seeking the legislation's defeat. I have had legitimate concerns about the power the bills would have placed in the hands of copyright holders and government, power to shut down or hamper the operations of Web sites without the burden of due process. I'm a libertarian at heart. I didn't have to think long or hard about my position.

Now that it appears we have won, I'm having second thoughts. If the bills are voted down (or, more likely, die without being put to a vote), the Internet will continue operating as it did before this brouhaha began. YouTube won't have to fear being shut down because a single person posted a video that included snatches of a copyrighted song being played in another room (to cite a persistent straw man from the anti-SOPA handbook). Everything will be hunky-dory.

And...piracy of copyrighted material will continue. It will no doubt continue to become more prevalent. Pirates will continue to become rich by offering access to stolen material. Google, DoubleClick, Clicksor, Pubmatic, AdBrite, Image Space Media, PayPal and other middlemen will get their share of the action. Content creators will continue to get nothing from illegal streaming and download of their work. They will continue to incur the expenses, do the work, create the content, and get nothing.

It isn't right to congratulate ourselves on killing SOPA and going on as if the world is as it should be. We own the Internet, and it is our job to make sure it is a force for good. We have a responsibility to correct inequities. To stop theft.

The Obama administration explained its opposition to SOPA and PIPA in a post at the White House blog. The post's authors wrote this: “[R]ather than just look at how legislation can be stopped, ask yourself: Where do we go from here? Don’t limit your opinion to what’s the wrong thing to do, ask yourself what’s right.”

So. What's right?

Web recommendation: Speaking of piracy, here's some food for thought. Click on the embedded video. Yes, it's a bit overlong...but it's a powerful, provocative message. It may just change your mind. J.D. says check it out.

J.D. Hildebrand has written hundreds of articles for dozens of publications and online communities dedicated to software development. He is currently reading Markus Zusak's The Book Thief.