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But the US did not order anyone to be arrested abroad or extradite anyone did they? They arrested one of the developers when he deplaned in Las Vegas.

These cases are not all the same. Different criminal laws are being violated, by people in different places, involving different US-based businesses.

A "SOPA exemption" isn't going to protect you if you are hosting in the US. You need a DMCA exemption. And if you're reaching audiences the size of YouTube's or Megaupload's, Vivendi will see you in court.

If you have no US-based servers, and if Bananastan has no treaty cooperation with the US on IP infringement and extradition, then shutting you down is not so easy for Vivendi (FBI/DOJ) to accomplish.

For that they need more than what they have now (DMCA) to work with.

So all those folks who always say "memory is cheap" and who make fun of others who write small conservative programs might not be so smart after all.

Because they can't run their "feature-rich" unconstrained applications on wimpy nodes. And thus they can't cut their employer's energy and real estate costs.

Why did Google abandon its plans to supply its own energy?

If you host server in the US, you are not a foreign website. You are a local one. In that situation, a SOPA/PIPA makes little difference. They can shut you down easily with existing laws. Do you understand?

My prediction: Client-side encryption is going to become more popular. All users encrypt files before sending to cloud. Then users decide who gets access to their information. This is just common sense. It might help in areas like medical records (HIPAA) as well.

If you give Dropbox write-access to your Desktop and all your unencrypted original files, you are 0wned.

Mr Hand, I've been thinking. If I have access to the files. And you have access to the files. Then doesn't that make them "our files"? - Spiccoli

Text-based. That's why they call it "Visual". Perhaps it would be nicer to have a text-free touchscreen with big buttons?

Megaupload had servers in the USA with Carpathia Hosting. That makes them subject to US law. SOPA/PIPA are aimed at situations where the servers are all offshore and the business has no connection to the US.

Megaupload used servers in the USA at Carpathia Hosting. That makes them subject to US law. SOPA/PIPA was for foreign sites that have no servers in the USA.