You know the only thing more speculative than Big Medias sales losses due to piracy? The extent they could reduce piracy with their own cheap, easy and reliable download portals. Any study claiming to put a number on that is just guessing. Are you honestly telling people who will illegally download copyrighted material for free under ANY circumstances will admit that when asked? Even though the inability to do it legally is the most popular explanation/excuse for doing it illegally?

I agree this is not an end user problem, but it is most definitely an illegal for profit provider problem. I would not criminalize obtaining copyrighted electronic data for free any more than I would criminalize people making and mailing Phish concert tapes. If I correctly recall the way you explained that to me, Phish did not mind either—unless there was money involved, because then someone else was making a profit off their work, a valid complaint. We should target the sites, aggressively, using every legal means to block access to them and any site deliberately providing that access, shutting them down and prosecuting the operators when possible, just like we do any other thief. We should NOT target everyone who has ever had even brief and/or innocent contact with them, or let unsubstantiated unspecified accusations of piracy justify blocking/taking down sites.

Those are straightforward improvements over SO/PIPA. We would not even have to worry about Congress comprehending measures so similar to what they did with the DMCA. And before you say it again, no, that does not prove DMCA adequate, because the proposed legislation specifically targets regions outside DMCAs jurisdiction. Buying a new set of tires does not obviate the need to change sparkplugs.