There was great news from the Internet this weekend on SOPA and PIPA. The battle isn’t over, but the forces on the Internet gained some ground on a critical issue.
In the House
Justin Amash posted on Facebook over the weekend that the DNS blocking portions of SOPA would be removed. Of course, depending on how the rewrite goes, it could be really good or really bad. Only time will tell. Here is what Congressman Amash posted:
Issa: Flawed SOPA Bill Not Headed to House Floor
OGR hearing planned for Wednesday postponed following assurances, removal of DNS provisions
Washington, DC – House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa today announced that a hearing scheduled for Wednesday, which was to examine 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.
“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. 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,” said Chairman Issa. “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.”
“Earlier tonight, Chairman Smith announced that he will remove the DNS blocking provision from his legislation. Although SOPA, despite the removal of this provision, is still a fundamentally flawed bill, I have decided that postponing the scheduled hearing on DNS blocking with technical experts is the best course of action at this time. Right now, 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.”
Chairman Issa 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. Learn more about Rep. Issa and Sen. Ron Wyden’s alternative the OPEN Act at www.keepthewebopen.com
In the Senate
Patrick Leahy, the chief sponsor of PIPA, has said that he plans to offer an amendment to study the impact of the technological aspects of the bill. The other pieces of PIPA (like stopping credit card transactions) would remain. While there are still concerns with those other parts of the bill, Leahy changing PIPA is a big move in the right direction.
Additionally, several senators have asked Harry Reid to cancel the vote on PROTECT IP currently planned for January 24. In a letter to Reid, they cited concerns from “constituents and other stakeholders” about the unintended consequences of the bill. While this is also a good thing, it’s important to keep the pressure on your legislators until the bill is completely killed.
From the White House
Finally, never let it be said that I didn’t point it out when President Obama is on the right side of an issue. The White House has issued a statement in response to some online petitions saying it will not support SOPA or PIPA as they are currently written. We’ve heard this kind of thing from Obama before, so even though it’s good news, I’m a little hesitant to celebrate just yet.
The RIAA’s response was basically that they’re still going to demand legislation that can stop credit card transactions and that will prevent search engines from linking to the content. That’d still be a bill worth opposing, but it is encouraging that the opposition effort has this issue moving in the right direction.
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