Monday, January 16, 2012

SOPA stopped, for now..

Looks like SOPA (stop online piracy act) is not being voted on until they reach a consensus. Which hopefuly will be never.

House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said early Saturday morning that Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) promised him the House will not vote on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) unless there is consensus on 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," Issa said in a statement.  "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."

The announcement comes just hours after Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), SOPA's sponsor, made a major concession to the bill's critics by agreeing to drop a controversial provision that would have required Internet service providers to block infringing websites.SOPA is designed to go after foreign websites that offer illegal copies of music, movies and TV shows with impunity. Even without the provision allowing sites to be blocked, the bill would empower the Justice Department and copyright holders to demand that search engines delete links to sites “dedicated” to copyright infringement. Ad networks and payment processors would be prohibited from doing business with the sites.
The bill has sparked a backlash from Internet freedom advocates and Web companies, including Google, Yahoo and Facebook, who say it would stifle innovation and suppress free speech.  
The provision that would have required Internet providers to block infringing websites was one of the most controversial aspects of the bill. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt compared the provision to how China censors political speech online.

Taken from:  http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/204167-sopa-shelved-until-consensus-is-found

This is a win for every internet user in the world :)


Posted by at

4 comments:

  1. DWeiJanuary 17, 2012 at 12:22 AM

    Now we just have to work on PIPA.

    ReplyDelete
  2. dopdavidJanuary 17, 2012 at 1:12 PM

    a very serious win that more people need to be made aware of, our rights could be taken away!

    ReplyDelete
  3. lmaoitsjesusJanuary 17, 2012 at 7:16 PM

    i heard wikipedai will shut down for wednesday, as part of a sopa protest

    ReplyDelete
  4. Alex RoweJanuary 17, 2012 at 9:53 PM

    It's only the beginning (though it has made great momentum).

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)