Sen Coons admits: SOPA "really did pose some risk to the Internet"

Backers of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate companion, the Protect IP Act (PIPA), have been railing against the bill's critics ever since the legislation plunged to a fiery death earlier this year.

The unprecedented online protest by Google, reddit, Wikipedia, Ars Technica, Wired, and others was, the backers say, largely about misleading the public. But not every backer got the message. As PIPA co-sponsor Senator Chris Coons admitted May 23, SOPA "really did pose some risk to the Internet." He admitted that the legislative approach considered by Congress had gotten the balance wrong. One of his sons woke him up and asked "why I wanted to break the Internet and why Justin Bieber thought I should go to jail," Sen Coons said. "That was my first warning that we were not communicating effectively," Sen Coons added, but he went on the admit that the issues involved more than "communications." Some bits of the more radical SOPA, in particular, "overreached" and "really did pose some risk to the Internet."