U.S. Congress Shelves SOPA

[Rainbow Dash]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115265-U-S-Congress-Shelves-SOPAThe 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. 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. "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.

[Applejack]

lol 'high profile...reddit'



But seriously, hurray and whatever.







also fuck reddit

[Zelphiel]

check out wikipedia today if you haven't. even though the internet got a temporary stay of execution maybe the sites that are shutting themselves down will open people's eyes more.

[Kurbee]

http://www.explosm.net
http://www.newgrounds.com
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com
http://www.errornotfound.org
http://www.ragemaker.net/blackout
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://www.reddit.com
http://www.craigslist.com


I'm sure there's more.

[Rainbow Dash]

Mojang (The Minecraft guys) as well.

And yes, the bill's writer did say he wasn't done yet and that he was gonna continue supporting it even if others don't, so it's still on even if support is rapidly fading.

Assuming you have eyeballs, you've likely noticed that a number of popular internet destinations have gone dark today in protest of SOPA. Keen to ingratiate themselves with the legions who are now left stranded without the collective wisdom of Wikipedia, a number of politicians have publicly dropped support for the proposed bill, and are theoretically urging others to do the same.

TechCrunch reports:


The online uproar against the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in Congress is already causing some in Washington to abandon the SOPA ship. The tide began to turn this weekend when a hearing scheduled for today was canceled and the White House pushed back on some of the more controversial portions of the House bill and its Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

Already, a couple of co-sponsors of the bill are pulling their support. Representative Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.) is no longer a co-sponsor, and Representative Lee Terry (R-Neb.) is also planning to remove his name from the co-sponsor list ...

Continuing, the report points to a recent Facebook update authored by Michigan Republican representative Justin Amash, in which Amash diplomatically throws his support behind today's blackout:

On Wednesday, January 18, I will join others across the Internet in a 24-hour "blackout" to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate. These bills give the federal government unprecedented power to censor Internet content and will stifle the free flow of information and ideas. In protest, I have changed my profile picture and will temporarily disable your ability to post independent content on my Wall (although you still may comment under this post). Demand that Congress and the President keep the Internet open and free. Please borrow my profile pic, share this message, and contact your Representatives and Senators in Congress to urge them to protect your right to free speech by opposing SOPA and PIPA.

Likewise, Kotaku points out that Missouri rep Roy Blunt has pulled his support of PIPA and Gizmodo has word that PIPA co-sponsor Mark Rubio has abandoned the bill.

Meanwhile, Senator Ron Wyden, from my beautiful bohemian home state of Oregon, said that PIPA "establishes a censorship regime." Nicely done Mr. Wyden. Gold star for you.

Yay, right? Progress! SOPA is increasingly unpopular and the wired masses are vindicated in their lazy quest for free information (and, let's be honest, pornography). Now that that's settled, who's up for a petition to get Firefly back on the air?

[Applejack]

I hoped that Reddit would stay down forever. That's all I care about, really.

[Rainbow Dash]

I don't get what harm they do to us

[Applejack]

Reddit is the AIDS of the internet. I may be harsh on shit like /b/ but god damn Reddit is the red headed stepchild of the internet. No one there has an original thought and they communicate in unfunny memes well past their prime. Every single person on every single subreddit is a self righteous asshole and the website is stupidly designed.


Also they spawned shitty rage comics that are never, ever, ever, ever funny and for that they should be shut down.

[Zelphiel]

mozilla jumped on the bandwagon today too. I haven't noticed too many others.

I was kind of hoping the major torrent sites would do it too. the most I've seen is btjunkie has an ad talking about it on their main page.

...but their ad has been there for about 2 months.

[Rainbow Dash]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115384-SOPA-Postponed-IndefinitelySOPA lead sponsor Senator Lamar Smith says markup in the bill will be postponed "indefinitely" until wider consensus on how to combat piracy can be reached.

It wasn't exactly a "Day of Rage," although there was no shortage of pissed-off stupid at @herpderpedia, but the "No Wiki Wednesday" [or whatever you'd like to call it] was nevertheless noticed by the Powers That Be. Republican Senator Lamar Smith, the House Judiciary Chairman and lead sponsor of the Stop Online Piracy Act, announced today that he's putting the brakes on the bill.

"I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products," Smith said in a statement, once again hitting his odious "foreign thieves" note.

He said Congress will continue to work with "copyright owners and internet companies" to come up with ways to combat online piracy and also invited input from anyone "who has an honest difference of opinion about how best to address this widespread problem."

"The problem of online piracy is too big to ignore," he continued. "American intellectual property industries provide 19 million high-paying jobs and account for more than 60 percent of U.S. exports. The theft of America's intellectual property costs the U.S. economy more than $100 billion annually and results in the loss of thousands of American jobs. Congress cannot stand by and do nothing while American innovators and job creators are under attack."

Several politicians had already withdrawn their support for SOPA and its Senate sister PIPA prior to Smith's statement, including SOPA co-sponsors Ben Quayle and Lee Terry, and PIPA co-sponsors Mark Rubio and Roy Blunt. And although it's not quite as sweet and satisfying as an outright acknowledgment that the whole idea was a bad one from the get-go, this is definitely a step in the right direction.

[Chicken Little]

Foreign... thieves?

Says the man from the nation disregarding national copyrights, underwriting conglomerates to push out local jobs and form monopolies and blatantly flogging foreign ideas to pass off as your own.

"We started this label and the practices involved in production 40 years after you did, however since we market it to half the globe we demand you cease production and change your branding in your core market as we're coming to town! We'll give you 2m to fuck off quietly."

Maybe I can show the man some foreign savagery at his constant stupidity?

[Rainbow Dash]

Oh yeah. I'm pissed at that "foreign theives" bullshit too. Typical Republican bullshit.

[Setzophone]

I enjoy all the dollar amounts they're throwing around.

"We lost 100 billion dollars! I can't buy tranny prostitutes for every business trip fuck."

You never had that money you satchels of semen.

[Chicken Little]

Oh yeah. I'm pissed at that "foreign theives" bullshit too. Typical Republican bullshit.

This isn't continual fallout from 9/11 and they're just going one step further and "all non Americans are fucking evil dirty bastards" are they? They've always had some sort of leaning towards being insular fucksticks yeah?

Semi related note, did I also see Dodd of the MPAA make a statement re bribery and buying out politicians over there when Obama shut his face up? If so is that really what passes as US politics these days? Corruption & pseudo mob votes from fat cats?

[Setzophone]

Pretty much.

[Rainbow Dash]

This isn't continual fallout from 9/11 and they're just going one step further and "all non Americans are fucking evil dirty bastards" are they? They've always had some sort of leaning towards being insular fucksticks yeah?
It could be taken that way, but he also could be trying to appeal to peoples' xenophobia to gain more public support. Either way it's hateful and disgusting.