StopOnlinePiracyAct
Latest
Internet Association to lobby Washington, may tout Amazon, Facebook, Google among its ranks
Political lobbying is often a mixed bag at best. Still, there's a cautious amount of optimism surrounding the Internet Association, a soon-to-start lobbying group that plans to advocate for an "open, innovative and free" internet among US politicians. The unsurprising (if well-intentioned) aim is to prevent another SOPA or PIPA with more formal opposition than even the Internet Defense League can manage. Who'll be pulling the strings is nebulous -- officially, the Association will only say that former Congressional staff director Michael Beckerman is at the helm until a formal September 19th launch. That internet openness must extend to some very leaky representatives, however, as the National Journal, AFP and Reuters all claim that Amazon, eBay, Facebook and Google are charter members. None of them are talking on the record; we certainly wouldn't be shocked if the roster is real, knowing how much Google and other partners have fought takedown laws that would bypass much of the normal legal system. We're hoping that whatever manifests a genuinely rational counterbalance to media and telecom influences that often aren't very interested in protecting internet-only business models or due process.
PIPA and SOPA votes pushed back in the face of overwhelming opposition
In the face of overwhelming opposition from just about every major technology company and the general public, the US Senate and House have decided to delay votes on the anti-piracy bills known as PIPA (Senate) and SOPA (House). Majority leader Harry Reid and Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith both announced that upcoming work on the acts would be delayed, "until there is wider agreement on a solution." While both have said that concerns over piracy must be addressed, it seems unlikely that they or any other politician will be rushing to revive the would-be laws after very public protests from Google and Wikipedia and the reported deluge of phone calls and emails that hammered offices at the capital Wednesday. The fight over intellectual property rights and fair use is far from over but, as the sibling bills face yet another delay, it's beginning to appear as if SOPA and PIPA's days are numbered
Lamar Smith: SOPA markup to resume in February
Thought the White House was able to put enough of smackdown on SOPA to kill the bill entirely? You thought wrong. We'd heard that the extremely controversial legislation would be delayed until a few concerns were ironed out, and according to House Judiciary Committee Chair Lamar Smith -- the author of the bill -- markup is expected to continue next month, as soon as both parties return from their retreats. Let's just hope that the "consensus" between Congress and the White House makes the bill look different than what we saw prior to the holiday break. Check out the full press release after the break.[Thanks, Brianna]
White House responds to SOPA petition as hearing is delayed, DNS blocking on the outs
It's turned out to be a big weekend for those concerned about the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act. Yesterday came word that a key House hearing originally scheduled for Wednesday will be delayed until there is a "consensus" on the bill, and today the White House has issued an official statement on SOPA (and the Protect IP Act, its counterpart in the Senate) in response to a petition that drew thousands of signatures. While it doesn't go quite as far as to issue a firm veto threat from the President, it does lay out the administration's position in the clearest terms yet, including the condition that any proposed law "must not tamper with the technical architecture of the Internet through manipulation of the Domain Name System." That follows word late last week that Representative Lamar Smith and Senator Patrick Leahy would indeed pull the DNS provisions from SOPA and PIPA. The White House statement is less specific in other respects, but it broadly states that the administration will "not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet." In related news, the planned blackouts to protest SOPA and PIPA only seem to be increasing, with the popular xda-developers forum recently announcing that it will go dark at 8AM on January 18th, and return either at 8PM or as soon as it's able to get 50,000 people to sign a pledge to contact their local Senator or Representative.
Comcast network upgrade blocks DNS blocking, could make SOPA self-incompatible
Now here's a quirky twist in the ongoing SOPA opera. Comcast has just deployed DNSSEC technology across its entire internet service, which adds an extra layer of security to websites by checking that they have a special DNS signature to prove their identity. All well and good, except that in the process Comcast has been forced to admit that DNSSEC is "technically incompatible" with DNS redirect tools -- which happen to be precisely the tools that the Stop Online Piracy Act would use to block websites accused of copyright violation. The irony only deepens when you realize that Comcast is a major proponent of SOPA and, if anything, ought to be able to comply with its future edicts.
SOPA: Who's in and who's out?
By now we're sure you're aware that SOPA is more than just a tomato-based noodle soup. The Stop Online Piracy Act's been stirring controversy with its intentions, and it'll most likely continue in this path until we hear a final decision. Go Daddy wasn't shy -- before retracting -- about its support for the bill, and things have changed drastically since we first heard some of the "top dogs" express their feelings. But who else is behind it, who's got your back, and who's had a change of heart? The answers await you after the break.
Go Daddy pulls support for SOPA amidst backlash, too late to satisfy Wikipedia
It looks like the prospect of widespread boycott was more than Go Daddy was willing to face as a result of its support for the Stop Online Piracy Act -- the domain name registrar announced today that it has officially withdrawn its support for the controversial bill. In a statement, the company said that "fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has been working to help craft revisions to this legislation - but we can clearly do better," adding that it will support new legislation "when and if the Internet community supports it." That move proved to be too late for a number of prominent Go Daddy customers, however, including Wikipedia, which coincidentally announced today that it will be moving all of its domain names away from Go Daddy due to its stance on SOPA. Go Daddy's full announcement is after the break.
SOPA hearing delayed until the new year as petition signatures top 25k
Hearings in the US House of Representatives to finish markup on the Stop Online Piracy Act (or SOPA) were slated to resume tomorrow, but it looks like things will remain at a standstill until next year. The holiday break has now pushed the committee hearing back to a yet-to-be-rescheduled date, with nothing more specific than "early next year" being promised at the moment. That news comes as a Whitehouse.gov petition asking President Obama to veto the bill and any future ones like it passed its goal of 25,000 signatures, well ahead of the January 17th deadline (as of this writing, the count stands around 29,000).
SOPA hearings underway, tech policy wonks can stream it live
Like any good tech geek you're probably at least interested in, if not a little concerned by SOPA -- the Stop Online Piracy Act. Well, today is its day in front of the House Judiciary committee. While this is hardly the last stop on the road towards becoming a law for the bill it is one that will be crucial in deciding its fate. Will it be toothless and unenforceable? Simply die in committee? Or will this become a powerful new tool in the battle against piracy? If you're the really wonky type hit up the source link to watch a live stream of the debate.[Thanks, Tyler]
Google, Facebook, Twitter and others speak out against the Stop Online Piracy Act
Earlier today, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (or SOPA) which, depending on who you ask, is either a means to stop piracy and copyright infringement on so-called "rogue" websites, or the most serious threat of internet censorship that we've seen in some time. In the latter camp are some of the biggest internet companies around, including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, eBay, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Zynga and AOL (full disclosure: Engadget's parent company), who today made their stance clear by taking out a full-page ad in The New York Times. The ad itself is a letter sent by the nine companies to Congress, which states that while they support the stated goals of the bill and the related Protect IP Act, they believe that, as written, the bills "would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action, and technology mandates that would require monitoring of web sites." The companies further went on to say that they believe the measures also "pose a serious risk to our industry's continued track record of innovation and job-creation, as well as to our Nation's cybersecurity." While they didn't all sign onto the letter, those companies also also joined by a host of others who have spoken out against the legislation, including Foursquare and Tumblr. The sole witness against the proposed measures at today's hearing, however, was Google's copyright policy counsel, Katherine Oyama -- you can find her testimony on Google's Public Policy Blog linked below.
