SOPA Derailed
Summary: According to a prominent U.S. Congressman, SOPA will not come up for a vote and is, thus, effectively dead, but PIPA remains active in the Senate.
Darrell Issa, Congressman, announced that SOPA won't get to the House floor for a vote.
U.S. House Judiciary Committee Member Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) opponent has announced that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has promised him that he will not bring the bill to the floor. That mean, for all practical intents and purposes, that SOPA is dead.
In a press release, Issa announced that he was canceling his Wednesday hearing on "the impact of Domain Name Service (DNS) and search engine blocking on the Internet, has been postponed following assurances that anti-piracy legislation will not move to the House floor this Congress without a consensus."
Issa said, "Majority Leader Cantor has assured me that we will continue to work to address outstanding concerns and work to build consensus prior to any anti-piracy legislation coming before the House for a vote." Without the Majority Leader's support, SOPA won't get to the House's floor, it will not be voted on, and this makes it essentially dead.
Why did the House reverse its course? According to Issa on Twitter, first the Internet protests had a big impact. "The House of Reps heard your #stopsopa message loud and clear." And, in a rare bipartisan move in our current political climate, Issa tweeted, "Great news folks: #SOPA will not move in the House of Reps" citing President Obama's anti-SOPA statement.
This isn't the end of the story, though, Issa continued, "While I remain concerned about Senate action on the Protect IP Act [PIPA], I am confident that flawed legislation will not be taken up by this House." "The voice of the Internet community has been heard. Much more education for Members of Congress about the workings of the Internet is essential if anti-piracy legislation is to be workable and achieve broad appeal." Therefore, "the focus of protecting the Internet needs to be on the Senate where Majority Leader Reid has announced his intention to try to move similar legislation in less than two weeks."
In his announcement, Issa concluded that he intends to continue to push for Congress to heed the advice of Internet experts on anti-piracy legislation and to push for the consideration and passage of the bipartisan OPEN Act, which provides an alternative means for protecting intellectual property rights without undermining the structure and entrepreneurialism of the Internet. You can learn more about Rep. Issa and Sen. Ron Wyden's alternative, the OPEN Act at its Web site
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Talkback
RE: SOPA Derailed
RE: SOPA Derailed
RE: SOPA Derailed
RE: SOPA Derailed
SOPA has been merely shelved, and I'd be surprised if this didn't come back as a reformed PIPA. Reforming PIPA and passing it through senate would make more sense as people would view it as a compromise.
If anything, there is more reason than ever to fight against Internet censorship and draconian copyright laws. The very fact that America has raised SOPA and PIPA shows that the Internet is far from safe and people should continue to be angry about it.
Hopefully Reddit will lead the way towards an Internet blackout, if not to get rid of SOPA, but to get rid of PIPA and to criticise those who let it get this far in the first place.
While SOPA was bad on many levels...
There is a real need for tech to stop the rampant theft and piracy of copyrighted material. Part of it is education; teaching kids and punishing kids that download pirated music and movies; teach them it is the same as shop-lifting. Part of it is technology. Part of it is enforcement of the existing legislation.
The Internet
It's not over 'till it's over
A delay or compromise is not the solution sought.
RE: SOPA Derailed
RE: SOPA Derailed
They were supposed to ask permission, but that seemed to get lost in their voracious desire to swallow the written words of everything ever published. Trying to get through to some large companies about this kind of breach of copyright can also be as difficult as hunting down those that hide in the recesses of the internet. But then again, whats the difference with someone small distributing something they do not own and a large multi-billion dollar corporation breaking copyright law. Not much, they are both culpable and in breach of copyright.
But SOPA and PIPA are a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Sometimes those that purport to do things for reasons that they believe to be in the best interest of everyone have either had their vision coloured by a third party, or they fail to see the bigger picture.
The internet is bigger than any one person, company or country. It is bringing us together in ways we never thought possible. Actions without understanding of the repercussions (short of long term) will be something that haunts everyone, just look at how the end of the war in Iraq was handled, to see bad planning in action. Any change needs to be discussed by those it is intended to impact, and the impact of any changes on the way the internet is policed needs to be viewed from a global position. As has already been mentioned, many of the internet infrstructure providers residing outside of the US would shield themselves by limiting DNS services between the US and the rest of the world.
In the current climate that would be a VERY BAD FINANCIAL MOVE. So I am glad for the moment there has been a breathing space, but as others have said, it is far from dead, watch this space and keep you finger on the pulse.