He was a big backer of the Patriot Act and has never distinguished himself as anything other than a rubber-stamp for the demands of corporate interests that would love to colonize the Internet.

So what happened?

Ryan's Democratic challenger in the 2012 election, an energetic local official named Rob Zerban, made the issue unavoidable for Ryan.

Zerban came out strong against the issue, launched an online petition urging Ryan to join him in opposing it and began working with the powerful online community reddit — where the registered users submit content — to highlight his fight on the issue.

Zerban kept talking about SOPA when most other pols were avoiding the issue — or simply were unaware of it.

"SOPA is a complex issue but here is how I approach it: The first thing to remember is that our free speech is our most fundamental right as Americans and this is critical to our society and economy. It is also critical to innovation and this process of free speech, which we are doing right now on reddit, is what enables us to share and develop the ideas that impact the world," said Zerban, a successful businessman, who bluntly declared: "We need to preserve the free nature of the Internet."