Why SOPA Would Be A Disaster For Scientific Publishing. One of the many dangerous aspects of SOPA/PIPA is that its backers seem to have given no thought to what the unintended consequences might be.
In particular, there is no awareness that it might wreak serious damage in areas that are very distant from the core concerns of unauthorized copies of music or films – such as scientific publishing. Here's a great post by the noted campaigner for open science, Cameron Neylon, entitled "The stupidity of SOPA in Scholarly Publishing", where he points out:
About this Publishing System. PLoS Medicine - Why Current Publication Practices May Distort Science. Figures Citation: Young NS, Ioannidis JPA, Al-Ubaydli O (2008) Why Current Publication Practices May Distort Science.
PLoS Med 5(10): e201. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050201 Published: October 7, 2008.