Posted on 01/18/2012 3:08:55 PM PST by abb
Congressional support for controversial online piracy legislation eroded dramatically on Wednesday in the face of an unprecedented online protest supported by tech titans such as Google, Wikipedia and Facebook.
Several key senators withdrew their support from the Senate's Protect IP Act (PIPA), including Tea Party favorite Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), an elected member of his party's leadership.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who leads the Senate GOP's campaign team, said the legislation should be put on hold, while Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a sponsor and the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, retreated from the bill. Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) also withdrew his sponsorship.
Thousands of websites went dark on Wednesday to protest the two Internet piracy bills, the House's Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate's PIPA. At least two California Democrats, Reps. Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren, joined the protests by blacking out their websites.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a leader of Senate conservatives, also came out against the bills, calling them "misguided bills that will cause more harm than good."
"When protecting intellectual property rights, we must not undermine free speech, threaten economic growth, or impose burdensome regulations," DeMint tweeted.
Opposition is also building in the House. Two of the original Republican co-sponsors of SOPA, Reps. Ben Quayle (Ariz.) and Lee Terry (Neb.), withdrew their support Tuesday before the protests began, and scores of other lawmakers took to Twitter Wednesday to affirm their opposition.
The coordinated online protests are aimed at bringing down legislation that would empower the Justice Department and copyright holders to demand that search engines delete links to sites deemed to be “dedicated” to copyright infringement. Ad networks and payment processors would be prohibited from doing business with the sites.
Where the protests left the legislation, which is supported by the Motion Picture Association of America and recording industry, among other groups, is unclear. The Senate is scheduled to hold a procedural vote on the legislation next week, but it is uncertain whether the 60 votes to move forward can be found. The fight over the bills has broken across party lines, with House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) leading opposition in the House against Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
Hundreds of millions of Internet users, most of whom might have been unaware of the bills until Wednesday, are likely to have noticed the protests.
Google, the most visited site in the world, plastered a black box evoking censorship over its logo and claimed the bills would "censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American businesses." Users who click on the black box are re-directed to a petition urging Congress to drop the piracy legislation on a page.
Wikipedia — the world's sixth most popular site, according to the Web firm Alexa — went a step further, shutting down its English-language site entirely. Visitors to Wikipedia are greeted with a minimalistic, dark page with the headline: "Imagine a world without free knowledge."
After announcing he was withdrawing his support, Rubio said Congress should take its time in crafting new legislation that addresses the concerns raised by both the technology and content industries.
“I have been a co-sponsor of the PROTECT IP Act because I believe it’s important to protect American ingenuity, ideas and jobs from being stolen through Internet piracy, much of it occurring overseas through rogue websites in China,” Rubio said in a post on Facebook. “As a senator from Florida, a state with a large presence of artists, creators and businesses connected to the creation of intellectual property, I have a strong interest in stopping online piracy that costs Florida jobs.
“However,” he continued, “we must do this while simultaneously promoting an open, dynamic Internet environment that is ripe for innovation and promotes new technologies.”
Six other GOP senators wrote to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) last week asking him delay a vote on PIPA scheduled for next week, but a senior Democratic aide told The Hill Reid plans to press ahead with the vote after requesting some changes to the Domain Name Service provision from sponsor and Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).
Google and Wikipedia weren’t the only big-name sites slamming the bills. The popular discussion board reddit went dark at 8:00 a.m., posting a message that read: "SOPA and PIPA damage the Internet. Today we fight back.”
Reddit encouraged users to "take today as a day of focus and action to learn about these destructive bills and do what you can to prevent them from becoming reality."
Wired, a technology magazine, also joined in, blacking out the headlines on its website.
Facebook did not shut down, but the social network's Washington, D.C., office posted a page that said the bills are “not the right solution” because of the “collateral damage they would cause to the Internet."
Other sites participating in the protest include craigslist, Mozilla, Imgur, Raw Story, MoveOn.org, Cheezburger and the Consumer Electronics Association.
The protests seemed to piquing the interest of Web users Wednesday. By mid-morning, “SOPA” and “SOPA blackout” were among the top 10 trending search terms on Google.
The bills' sponsors dismissed the protests Tuesday.
Smith, who authored SOPA, called Wikipedia's protest a "publicity stunt" that promotes "fear instead of facts."
"Perhaps during the blackout, Internet users can look elsewhere for an accurate definition of online piracy," he said.
Leahy, the chief author of the Senate bill, said the protest is based on a misunderstanding of the legislation.
"The PROTECT IP Act will not affect Wikipedia, will not affect reddit, and will not affect any website that has any legitimate use," he said.
"Perhaps if these companies would participate constructively, they could point to what in the actual legislation they contend threatens their websites, and then we could dispel their misunderstandings. That is what debate on legislation is intended to do, to fine-tune the bill to confront the problem of stealing while protecting against unintended consequences."
Movie studios, record labels and business groups say piracy legislation is needed to stop the illegal downloading of movies, music and other copyrighted content, and argue that legislative action is long overdue.
But consumer groups and Web companies warn the bills would stifle innovation and censor free speech. They say the legislation would impose an unreasonable burden on websites to police user-generated content and could lead to legitimate websites getting shut down.
The Motion Picture Association of America called the protests an "abuse of power" aimed at turning Web users into “corporate pawns.”
“A so-called ‘blackout’ is yet another gimmick, albeit a dangerous one, designed to punish elected and administration officials who are working diligently to protect American jobs from foreign criminals,” MPAA Chairman and former Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said in a statement. “It is our hope that the White House and the Congress will call on those who intend to stage this ‘blackout’ to stop the hyperbole and PR stunts and engage in meaningful efforts to combat piracy.”
The Senate is set to vote on the legislation on Tuesday. Smith has said he will push ahead with the House's version in the Judiciary Committee next month.
DeMint 'gets it'....
Oh really? And just who decides what websites are "legitimate?"
The 'committee' to decide who's legitimate and who isn't would carry great power - power to gather 'donations' from companies wanting favors.
The last thing we need is one more corrupt group fattening up our almost bribed out 'law' makers. Lawmakers enter congress as middle class - and in a few short years they're millionaires - this is how they get from point A to point B...
Whatever about up/downloaders, I am certainly not in favor of an immigration amnesty.
Hundreds of millions of Internet users, most of whom might have been unaware of the bills until Wednesday, are likely to have noticed the protests.
Hundreds of millions have been unaware of the bills because the mainstream media has been hiding these bills hoping Congress would pass them behind our backs. The mainstream media and Congress are the enemy of liberty, freedom and the enemy of the people.
These bills are the worst attack against liberty that I have seen.
And Lamar smith the villain behind these bills has a backup bill PCIPA in case these fail. This PCIPA he says is to protect the children against pornography but has SOPA in it.
Lamar reportedly sold his soul to this for only $100 grand. Surely Google could say to Lamar here, give the money back, we have $200 grand for you?
“Leahy, the chief author of the Senate bill, said the protest is based on a misunderstanding of the legislation.”
Uhhh...I would say that the protest is based on an UNDERSTANDING of the legislation.
“Lamar reportedly sold his soul to this for only $100 grand. Surely Google could say to Lamar here, give the money back, we have $200 grand for you?”
Well, I wonder what _would_ happen if Google publicly offered this jerk double what he’s gotten for dropping it. Do you think anyone would have the guts to charge Google with bribing a public official? The trial would be vastly entertaining.
Ain't it though? One of the few groups that I trust even less than the US Congress is MPAA/RIAA or whatever that stupid acronym is. And don't it figure that that crook Dodd is the doddering idiot in charge of it.
These politicians must be low-grade morons if they think that we don't see that this is the thin edge of the wedge that they've been trying to get their claws into the internet for years. Both US politicians and how many times have we heard about threatened UN internet taxes.
I need to hunt down that petition ;( Saw that google was blacked out but didn't click on it.
All that SOPA does is to set a precedent that govt can dismantle the internet and pull people's domain names and websites just because they don't tow the govt line. The govt decides what's "legitimate" and not.
Not for me anytime in the lifetime of this universe!
Scuzzy politicians ;(
Godspeed
On Freerepublic we need to start a campaign to get rid of Lamar Smith ,Dodd, SOPA, and Leahy .
Schumer, D-NY, and Gillibrand, D-NY, co-sponsors of PIPA, had protesters shouting outside their offices; the criminals of Anonymous busted the website of Holder’s so-called Department of Justice, Leahy’s doubling down looks like his last shriek on the retreat (and hopefully, retirement; he’s the current face on the We Need Term Limits movement), and you’ll notice very few (I saw zero, but maybe there were more) overpaid entertainers giving any encouragement at all to Congress.
Occutardation? No impact at all.
Internet censorship bills? Up in flames, the fascists backed down.
They will be back though.
No Republican should EVER back a bill like this — not even if every hollow idol of Hollywood suddenly endorsed the entire Republican slate of candidates, and we know that will never happen. IOW, since there’s no chance for their support, and every likelihood of their continued hostility, WHY WOULD YOU VOTE FOR IT?
Shut up, Leahy. Your side had a chance to negotiate in good faith, and blew it off because you thought you'd just get you way without making any concessions.
Now that you've been pwned and come up empty-handed, you whine about "misunderstanding". Go away.
Here was my contribution last week to the fracas. I like to think that my newsblog influenced Scalise to see the light.
http://lincolnparishnewsonline.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/scalise-removes-name-from-sopa-sponsorship-as-promised/
Scalise Removes Name From SOPA Sponsorship, as Promised
http://lincolnparishnewsonline.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/scalise-pulls-sopa-sponsorship/
Scalise Pulls SOPA Sponsorship
http://lincolnparishnewsonline.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/la-congressman-supports-internet-censorship/
LA Congressman Supports Internet Censorship
No, fine-tuning is what happens when a bill is NOT up for a vote - what's debated when a bill is on the floor is yea vs. nay. Old fart Leahy doesn't even understand his own job - and we should believe he understands the Internet better than Wikipedia and reddit?
It was very dismaying when so many Republican Reps and Senators signed onto this piece of shyte. What’s the upside for a conservative to support such an awful Hollywood driven bill that totally messes up internet freedom, unless he is getting schmeared (paid off)
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