In January 2012, two bills move quietly through the US Congress: SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, and PIPA, the Protect Intellectual Property Act, both drafted at the request of Hollywood studios and record labels to crack down on digital piracy. This Fault Lines report tracks how an online backlash turns into what organizers call the largest online protest in US history, forcing lawmakers to kill the anti-piracy bills within weeks. Michael O'Leary of the Motion Picture Association of America argues on camera that digital tools have simply made theft easier and more profitable, laying out the industry case for tighter controls. The film sets that argument against activists and users who see SOPA and PIPA as the latest in a string of anti-piracy legislation stretching back to the 1990s, each attempt testing how far the government can regulate the internet before it curbs speech and privacy outright. The 2012 fight becomes a case study in a longer, unresolved contest over who gets to set the rules for a network built to resist exactly that kind of control.