Reading up on SOPA can both clarify and muddy the waters

Having spent a good chunk of the afternoon hopscotching from SOPA-related news story to blog post to social-media forum and back again, I'm thinking it might be worthwhile to point to a handful of the more notable stops.

It started with Reddit's announcement of its self-imposed, anti-SOPA site blackout planned for Jan. 18, which deserves applause for its demonstration of commitment to the cause ... as well as the image of the sword-wielding Reddit alien.

Next stop was this opinion piece at Forbes contending that the Reddit blackout would be a whole lot more effective if Facebook and Google were to follow suit. That's indisputable, but it's not going to happen, of course, for all of the reasons cited by Reddit commenters ... and many more.

Then it was on to the dueling technical experts, with anti-SOPA thought leader Paul Vixie taking us through the relevant differences between DNS and DNSSEC.

And those who find Vixie unpersuasive, including Richard Bennett on The Hill's Congress Blog and here on HighTechForum.

By the time I finished reading TechDirt's coverage of Comcast's apparent SOPA conundrum, I had consumed my fill on the subject for the afternoon.

And I still think SOPA is a bad idea poorly executed.