Sopa doa?...

[paulitician]

Let's hope so.


U.S. legislation aimed at curbing online piracy, which had appeared to be on a fast track for approval by Congress, appears likely to be scaled back or jettisoned entirely in the wake of critical comments over the weekend from the White House, people familiar with the matter said.

The legislation, known as SOPA in the House of Representatives and PIPA in the Senate, has been a major priority for entertainment companies, publishers, pharmaceutical firms and many industry groups, who say it is critical to curbing online piracy that costs them billions of dollars a year.

The legislation is designed to shut down access to overseas websites that traffic in stolen content or counterfeit goods.

Internet companies have furiously opposed the legislation and have ramped up their lobbying efforts in recent months, arguing the legislation would undermine innovation and free speech rights and compromise the functioning of the Internet.

Some Internet advocates have called for a boycott of any companies that support the legislation, and several popular websites, including community-edited encyclopedia Wikipedia and the social media site Reddit, have vowed to black out their sites this Wednesday in protest.

Read More:
U.S. online piracy bill headed for major makeover | Reuters
DRUDGE REPORT 2012®

 

[WatertheTree]

Lets hope so. Otherwise people that run political boards such as this one, where debate happens, and dissent is rampant with less then honorable comments regarding the US government. Could get shut down! Sure would suck if the person that owns this site was to be arrested by the military under NDAA because of an opinion that someone put up.

But hey, this is America. It would never happen here.

 

[waltky]

SOPA blackout has some affect...

Internet community cheers power of protest
19 Jan.`12 - Score one for tech geeks up in arms.

The Internet community's rallying cry against anti-piracy legislation had its intended effect of grabbing the nation's attention Wednesday, though the final outcome remains far from settled. Technology companies staged an online blackout to protest two related bills that would crack down on websites that use copyrighted materials and sell counterfeit goods. Starting at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, hundreds of websites went dark or displayed banners protesting the Stop Online Piracy Act making its way through the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate's similar bill, known as the Protect IP Act.

Between noon and 4 p.m. Wednesday, Twitter said there were 2.4 million tweets related to the pair of bills that Internet and new media companies say threaten innovation and freedom of speech on the Web. Google says more than 4.5 million people signed its petition online protesting the legislation as word spread to casual Web users who may not have previously paid attention. "It's a long boxing match," says Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Center for Civic Media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Grass-roots organizers and tech companies "did an excellent job making the point clear. But I'm not ready to declare (the legislation) dead. It's wounded."

The Internet cabal started feeling its oats late Tuesday night, when Craigslist, Yahoo's Flickr, Google, The Huffington Post, WordPress and other sites hopped aboard the anti-SOPA bandwagon — joining Wikipedia, Reddit and others. In all, thousands of sites participated in the 24-hour blackout in some fashion, ranging from prominently displayed messages to outright shutdown. The snowball-like momentum reflected the "weight of big names opposing SOPA (and the influence they had on others) to oppose it," says Greg Sterling, an independent analyst who closely follows social media. "People want to be on the winning side of the issue and (once they saw) momentum turning, they joined the party." Added Reddit CEO Alexis Ohanian, "It is a testament to how the Internet works. Whether an (interesting) video or a cause, it shows the exponential growth of the Internet."

Protests extended beyond the digital world and spilled into the streets of New York on Wednesday, with a similar event in San Francisco. The stunning success of the protest, with its overwhelming impact on Web users, now raises the question: How might the organizers and their supporters flex their new-found political muscle in the future? Organizers will no doubt team up again if, and when, members of Congress stitch together new versions of SOPA and PIPA. "This process shows the enormous clout in our industry, and I hope we use it to support other causes," says Michael Fertik, CEO of Reputation.com, a security firm that did not participate in the blackout. "The protest underscores how much of a media power we are."

MORE

See also:

Internet Blackout Has US Lawmakers Thinking Twice
January 18, 2012 - Some of the most popular sites on the Internet have gone dark, part of a protest that appears to be making some inroads with U.S. lawmakers on Web piracy measures.

Online encyclopedia Wikipedia blacked out its English language website for 24 hours, alongside blog Boing Boing. Social news website Reddit plans to go dark for part of the day, and popular search engine Google has replaced its normally colorful and interactive logo with a black censor bar. These are just some of the online protests aimed at The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) currently before the House of Representatives, and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) under consideration in the Senate. The measures are designed to crack down on the sales of pirated U.S. products overseas. The House bill currently includes a provision on blacklisting sites that contain pirated content.

Supporters of the legislation include the film and music industry, which often sees its products pirated illegally. The industry says the measures are needed to protect intellectual property and jobs. Technology companies such as Google and other Internet giants like Yahoo and Twitter say the bills could hurt the technology industry and infringe on free speech rights if passed. Already, the blackout has caused some U.S. lawmakers to reconsider their support for the legislation, including Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. Rubio announced his change of heart on Facebook Wednesday, urging fellow lawmakers to "take more time to address the concerns raised by all sides, and come up with new legislation that addresses Internet piracy while protecting free and open access to the Internet." Republican Senator John Cornyn from Texas also withdrew his support for the legislation, calling for a more balanced approach.

Meanwhile, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Ohio Republican John Boehner admitted Wednesday that there was now a lack of consensus on the bills. Last week, the White House acknowledged that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response. But the statement said, "we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet." The White House also said it will continue to work with Congress on a bipartisan basis on legislation to provide new tools needed in the global fight against piracy and counterfeiting, while defending free expression, privacy, security and innovation.

Source

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Let's hope so.


U.S. legislation aimed at curbing online piracy, which had appeared to be on a fast track for approval by Congress, appears likely to be scaled back or jettisoned entirely in the wake of critical comments over the weekend from the White House, people familiar with the matter said.

The legislation, known as SOPA in the House of Representatives and PIPA in the Senate, has been a major priority for entertainment companies, publishers, pharmaceutical firms and many industry groups, who say it is critical to curbing online piracy that costs them billions of dollars a year.

The legislation is designed to shut down access to overseas websites that traffic in stolen content or counterfeit goods.

Internet companies have furiously opposed the legislation and have ramped up their lobbying efforts in recent months, arguing the legislation would undermine innovation and free speech rights and compromise the functioning of the Internet.

Some Internet advocates have called for a boycott of any companies that support the legislation, and several popular websites, including community-edited encyclopedia Wikipedia and the social media site Reddit, have vowed to black out their sites this Wednesday in protest.

Read More:
U.S. online piracy bill headed for major makeover | Reuters
DRUDGE REPORT 2012®

By no means is this dead, there is too much money behind it. It will be back.

 

[FA_Q2]

I truly hope that this effort fails bit this is neither the first attempt or the last and it will likely pass in the near future. Look at the DCMA, that passed. The funny thing is that no matter how hard they try and stop piracy, the end result is a near zero net effect in actually preventing it. A lot of government control without a reason.

 

[editec]

I expect that if the cannot get their way with a bill OPENLY telling us, they'll insinuate their will into RIDERS on bills that must be passed.

Let's just hope the same BIG CAPITAL that opposses this kind of control continues to pay attention and can alert us when they try..