As much as I'd love to believe it's dead I suspect the real thought process here is "Let's rebrand this turkey." They're going to let people calm down and resubmit the bill next month with a new name.
You know what the next bill will be called, don't you? Probably something along the lines of "Saving the Internet Act". There actually is one called OPEN, which I do believe was a more offensive way to make SOPA retreat made with good intentions by those who fought against SOPA, but it's one of these "compromise bills", and there are still problems with it. I don't think it's ok to cut the financing of a site before it can even defend itself. You can't just "streamline" the justice process. Everyone needs a fair trial if they are accused of something. The Feds have already abused their power with M
I suspect they will split the functionality of the bill into sub-pieces and and pass each one under a different name or as part of a totally unrelated project.
That absolutely works to float things under media scrutiny, especially in cases like this where the media is all but complicit in the passage of the law.
I think they are going to find it much harder to sneak things past "the Internet", though.
They will eventually work out how to do it, given enough time, but I do not think "business as usual" will actually cut it. We have the many eyes that make bugs shallow.
What, like the 20-year old telnetd vulnerability was "shallow"? Do not underestimate the opponent. Embedding nasties in seemingly-innocent bits of legislation is what politicians are good at. This was the "brute force" attempt.
That's exactly what I was thinking of as what they will do given "more time". But I still expect them to try a much more traditional "business as usual" first at least a couple of times, before they realize that's going to be necessary. That's way harder than what they do now, which they are used to working very well.
I think you're 100% correct. I wonder what the chances are of them getting input from tech experts on it, though. If they want to get something passed, I think they will need to get the input from industries professionals who know what they're doing. Or else we may just have a repeat of SOPA.