SOPA Update: Committee Vote Rescheduled, Making January a Critical Month to Save the Internet
Anti-SOPA activists and a group of Congressman temporarily derailed the Stop Online Piracy Act’s fast-tracking through Congress, but it’s now scheduled for a vote this Wednesday. What now?
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chief sponsor of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
Late last week, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) markup sessions were held in anctipation for a fast-track floor vote scheduled for Friday the 16th, allowing SOPA sponsors to sneak the bill past the American people during the collective mesmerization of the holidays, when few pay attention to political events.
However, through a broad anti-SOPA effort involving internet activists, tech company lobbying, communications to legislators, and congressional opposition led by Darryl Issa (R-CA) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), the markup sessions and vote were rescheduled, offering proof that activism was able to (temporarily) derail Lamar Smith’s fast-track, anti-debate tactics in committee.
Unfortunately, Smith rescheduled the markup sessions and committee vote for this Wednesday at 9:00am, once again attempting to slip it past the American people. As a bit of consolation to SOPA opponents, a hearing is to be held Friday to discuss how the bill would adversely effect cybersecurity. This would allow security experts and internet engineers to testify. (Last week, 83 internet founders and engineers drafted an open letter to congress in opposition to SOPA.)
“SOPA, as written, would threaten the functioning, freedom, and economic potential of the Internet,” said Sherwin Siy, deputy legal director of Public Knowledge, noting that scheduling the vote for Wednesday “when many members may well be absent demonstrates a clear desire to continue dodging the questions raised by experts, members, and the public.”
SOPA’s sister bill in the Senate PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) has been scheduled for a cloture vote on January 24, 2012 by Democratic Senator Harry Reid. The cloture vote would be used to circumvent Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who has managed to put the bill on hold with the help of a few other senators.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Senate won’t seriously consider passing its own version of the bill, which would surely be filibustered anyway, until the House passes its own version. The Hollywood Reporter also states that most experts believe a vote on the legislation would not happen until March at the earliest, possibly later.
While President Obama has not taken a public position on both pieces of legislation, Rep. Smith is confident that Obama will sign SOPA into law.
January will thus be the month in which activism must redouble its efforts, which includes raising awareness and expressing displeasure by calling and emailing representatives and senators. Anti-SOPA activists should also shift their gaze to convincing Obama that the SOPA and PROTECT IP bills are misguided, and that Wyden and Issa’s OPEN Act is a far better, though still flawed, mechanism for internationally policing online piracy.
Check out EFF’s Toolkit for Anti-SOPA Activism.
January 11, 2012 at 8:10 pm, Jiosdfw3 said:
fuck sopa
January 18, 2012 at 9:58 am, VagainstSopa said:
SOPA!That is the most bullshit thing i have heard about!tell me ,Sopa support guy ,have you ever download something from the internet(dont fucking give me “NO” coz i know you have fucking done that!),have your kids ever done that?(Hell yeah!!)
So isnt it a paradox?You,yes,you-the Sopa support guys are now against what you did,you do everyday…..(Maybe your kids is now downloading a song ”illegally”!!)
And in the end of the day,if you r looking for some guilty,all you is just looking into a mirror,SOPA!
We dont need Sopa,fuck off with your revolution(which is shit)…
January 18, 2012 at 12:54 pm, Nat The Tech Guy said:
Everyone downloads internet material all the time. Cache and cookie’s are obtained over web browsers which is causes by visiting pages which track you. If SOPA where to pass – then Cache would be breaking the law – meaning, not even the US Congress could access the Internet. This would make the internet value-less and: more importantly, cripple thousands of businesses in the USA which are run OVER the internet! SOPA should not pass. If you would like to stop SOPA; visit:
http://americancensorship.org/
January 19, 2012 at 10:20 am, moobs said:
whats messed up is american broadcasting giants CBS news started a large site called CNET which advertised torrenting clients openly. Knowing full well what this would imply hey had reviews, links and download mirrors up on their site to make attaining illegal content seem all the easy and without consequence.
January 20, 2012 at 5:15 pm, Dany said:
I’m pretty sure this guy has glasse, but I just cannot see his lenses
January 21, 2012 at 11:34 pm, Akio Azara said:
The SOPA act is ignorance at its finest. The internet is basically made by the people for the people. A place where we can be free to live differently and enjoy life unhindered by the government. This seems like a bullshit way to abuse the power the ‘higher ups’ have over the ‘little people’. We PAY for our internet, so why is it that if we download something from it, it’s a crime. It’s not like we’re abusing what we download, we USE it like we do the internet. At this point i’m so dumbfounded by the SOPA act that if it’s passed, i won’t even bother with having the internet anymore. I think a lot of people would stop using it until SOPA is no more, which would probably result in a huge loss to the economy. So, yes, SOPA sucks…Big time.
January 24, 2012 at 12:03 am, Helen said:
The government is solving the least important issues!!! How about you bring our soldiers? End this fucking recession by funding your money in more productive ways. We save money from downloading stuff off the internet so we don’t become homeless and are forced to be on the street.
January 25, 2012 at 2:24 pm, Angry anonymous said:
Why can’t people see this is a conspiracy, they have been trying to keep this as secret as possible, why has this stuff not been on front page of every news paper? Or why the t.v media has very little acknowledged this bill. It’s because these people are trying to keep it secret, a few senators who signed this bill that are now re-thinking about it metioned that they never even read the bill, what the hell, were they bribed by the big time companys that are supporting this bill, was this bullshit created by companys and they used Lamar Smith to start it?
February 02, 2012 at 6:07 pm, Bubbatea said:
I hate this Guy
Charles S. Higgins Please leave more hate Comments. This is the stupidest Law In the world. They should really waste there time and money on something a lot more convenient. They’re just running out of ideas save the internet pshh.. as if they really want to do that. Whatever it is there just going to ruin everyone’s reputation, families. Just watch the U.S fall to shit once again. 2012 isn’t going to be pretty because of dumb asses like them. They should really look at the facts, they should do there research before they make any rash decisions.
March 19, 2012 at 11:55 pm, Raven Foxfire said:
Now they are doing an end run around the whole law issue by forming an "under the table" collusion with all major ISP's in the U.S. to block sites and all P2P protocols over their networks. Without even a legal leg to stand on.