This year's version of SOPA snuck through Congress, 325-100

[Flonne]

http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/...2015%20IAA.PDF

tl;dr if you don't want to read it (though you should), this allows "acquisition, retention, and dissemination of covered communications", where "covered communications" is defined as "any nonpublic telephone or electronic communication acquired without the consent of a person who is a party to the communication, including communications in electronic storage".
This was pushed through at the last minute now BECAUSE it's the last minute, it was a bill in May of this year but it was amended and they waited until now to pass it through. Of course, the panty-bunching caused by the torture report's release probably helped their cause tremendously, and they were able to carry it even further on the "we need more information" narrative.

Check page 20 of the bill for what I quoted, under "Procedures for the retention of incidentally acquired materials", aka, "pomegranate we had no business taking to begin with"

[Sn1perJohnE]

If I remember correctly, one of the things everyone hated about SOPA was that it allowed companies to charge for internet services, or rather, internet providers to charge to premium use (like Time Warner charging Netflix to use its network to allow customers to watch Netflix).

Although I don't agree with this new on, it essentially puts into law what is already in practice.

[Flonne]

Although I don't agree with this new on, it essentially puts into law what is already in practice.

Yes, they are already doing it, but with this they can actually start legally using that information to harrass people, up until now it was illegal so they couldn't be open about doing it or use the information (unless the person had a pomegranatety lawyer/no lawyer and they knew it beforehand, or it was an issue they could sweep under the rug easily).

The faster/better bandwidth lines to sites/endusers that paid was one issue with SOPA, but certainly not the only one.

[Polantaris]

This was pushed through at the last minute now BECAUSE it's the last minute, it was a bill in May of this year but it was amended and they waited until now to pass it through. Of course, the panty-bunching caused by the torture report's release probably helped their cause tremendously, and they were able to carry it even further on the "we need more information" narrative.

These events are not unrelated.