U.S. Congress Shelves SOPA

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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U.S. Congress Shelves SOPA


The U.S. Congress has suspended action on SOPA following opposition to the legislation from the White House.

I don't think any piece of proposed legislation has ever been the subject of condemnation and opposition as widespread as that of the Stop Online Piracy Act, better known far and wide as SOPA [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/tag/sopa?from_search=1]. A number of prominent game developers and publishers have come out against the act [although the Entertainment Software Association, unfortunately, remains a supporter] and many high-profile websites, including Reddit, Mojang and Boing Boing, intended to "go black" on January 18 in protest. The backlash against it was quite literally unprecedented.

And, rather amazingly, it seems to have worked. On Saturday, the Obama administration, which had until that point not taken a position on the issue, came out against the bill with a statement posted on the White House Blog [http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/14/obama-administration-responds-we-people-petitions-sopa-and-online-piracy]. "While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet," it said.

"Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small," it continued. "Proposed laws must not tamper with the technical architecture of the Internet through manipulation of the Domain Name System (DNS), a foundation of Internet security. Our analysis of the DNS filtering provisions in some proposed legislation suggests that they pose a real risk to cybersecurity and yet leave contraband goods and services accessible online. We must avoid legislation that drives users to dangerous, unreliable DNS servers and puts next-generation security policies, such as the deployment of DNSSEC, at risk."

Shortly after that, the U.S. Congress shelved the bill. "While I remain concerned about Senate action on the Protect IP Act, I am confident that flawed legislation will not be taken up by this House," House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa said in a separate statement. "Majority Leader [Eric] 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."

Prior to the stepdown, SOPA's sponsor, Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, made a "major concession" by agreeing to drop a provision in the act that required internet providers to block infringing websites. Even with that provision removed, however, Issa described the bill as "fundamentally flawed." Another SOPA-like bill could always be proposed at some point in the future [and, let's face it, almost certainly will] but for now, I think we can call this a win.

Sources: The Hill [http://www.alternet.org/story/153776/victory_for_internet_freedom:_obama_announces_opposition_to_sopa,_congress_shelves_bill]


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Yureina

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May 6, 2010
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Hooray and stuffs. Now we can breathe easy... for a little while. :3

Hopefully that bill stays where it is and never ever sees the light of day again. Good thing that the US Congress is pretty good at that sort of thing anyway.

EDIT: And... cool, I made the first post. :eek:
 

DaHero

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Jan 10, 2011
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SOPA is down, but the government has yet to comment on PIPA, which to be honest is even worse.
 

LegoDudeGuy

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Jun 9, 2010
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[insert obligatory YES! YES! image]

Hooray! The internet has been saved!

EDIT: Damn ninja's, putting up videos...
 

Yureina

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Al-Bundy-da-G said:
Now I know who I'm voting for next year.

Well met Executive Branch. Well met.
I already knew that even before this. I wouldn't have known if Obama had signed this.
 

Ickabod

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WOW! Washington actually did something that made sense! Then again, they did something by not doing anything, I guess I shouldn't be that surprised.
 

Utrechet

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DaHero said:
SOPA is down, but the government has yet to comment on PIPA, which to be honest is even worse.
If you apply logic to this, they denied SOPA, which is just a minor edit of PIPA.
If you are for any of these bills, SOPA > PIPA, so if SOPA goes down, PIPA must go down with it.
 

XMark

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Jan 25, 2010
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Yay! Good news! But I REALLY want to see what happens with PIPA before I break out the champagne.
 

Reyalsfeihc

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Considering that in the quotes
Utrechet said:
DaHero said:
SOPA is down, but the government has yet to comment on PIPA, which to be honest is even worse.
If you apply logic to this, they denied SOPA, which is just a minor edit of PIPA.
If you are for any of these bills, SOPA > PIPA, so if SOPA goes down, PIPA must go down with it.
Agreed. If you look at the quotes from the chamber representatives it's clear to see that the majority of the House believes that both bills were fundamentally flawed. Seeing as how the Protect IP Act performs in a very similar way to SOPA I'd believe Obama would veto it as well if it made it through Senate.
 

Xanthious

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Well looks like all the fuss was for nothing and it turns out the sky, is indded, not falling after all. The bill never had a chance from the get go of making it out of The House (as I said it wouldn't multiple times over). I won't dispute it was horrible but it has absolutely ZERO chance of being put into law.

I guess now the internet can take a rest and get themselves ready for the next Bill/Law that gets them all in a collective tizzy and screaming about the end of days. At least watching people grossly over react is amusing I suppose. . . .
 

TheNaut131

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Inb4-

Xanthious said:
Well looks like all the fuss was for nothing and it turns out the sky, is indded, not falling after all. The bill never had a chance from the get go of making it out of The House (as I said it wouldn't multiple times over). I won't dispute it was horrible but it has absolutely ZERO chance of being put into law.

I guess now the internet can take a rest and get themselves ready for the next Bill/Law that gets them all out there collectively screaming about the end of days. At least watching people grossly over react is amusing I suppose. . . .
Wait, scratch that. Here he is.

I'm done giving a shit about these stupid little laws that materialize out of the government's ass which even if they do pass, never really act upon.

Now that that is over, can the government move on to trying to fix actual issues?

No?

Alrighty then!