SOPA would have given big copyright-accumulating companies the power to arbitrarily cut off revenue to sites of their choice, by making accusations of copyright infringement, with no penalty for false accusations and no compensation to victims of false accusations. In essence, Hollywould could have silenced or bankrupted any internet site or service at will, with impunity.

This new proposal would produce a similar effect by a different mechanism. It would empower big copyright-accumulating companies to impose on any site of their choice, a requirement to develop, install and maintain vastly expensive systems to detect, recognize and filter unauthorized files. The costs would prevent small operators from posting any user-sourced content, and the onerous interference with independent operations and new barrier to publishing would severely impair free-speech rights.

In a political system where lobbying is allowed, a wealthy special-interest group can demand changes to enhance its power and revenue, and succeed, even if the harm to the rest of society is astronomically worse than any benefit to the special interest group, because the harm is dispersed and the profit is concentated.