In an outburst emblematic of the generational animosity raised by SOPA, Rupert Murdoch tweeted directly about Google as the agents of piracy who sell ads around links to pirated IP. He has a point—but soon realized that he had missed the point—and backpedaled slightly by begrudgingly acknowledging Google's value as a company. Like artist Doug Wheeler who makes light palpable with his "infinity environments," it's hard to attack Google since they are atmospheric in their reach.

And this, in a sense, is the biggest, most compelling argument against SOPA and any other top-down management of the internet. The internet is alive, it is vast, it is an emergent system, like an economy of economies. Totalitarian command-control economics have failed because free markets allocate resources more efficiently and supplely. Ironically many of the same people who support SOPA are also adamant free market boosters—except where their direct interests are concerned.