Stop Online Piracy Act: Difference between revisions

On January 14, 2012, the Obama Administration issued an official statement in response to the petitions of against SOPA and PIPA. The White House pointed out that it is necessary to enact a law that will resolve online piracy by foreign websites, which is serious problem. The government strongly stated, "it will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet" It does not support the current provision of the SOPA that allows DNS filtering, which will put the [[DNSSEC]] deployment at risk. On the other hand, the expressed administration support to a legislation that will target online criminal activities with strong due process and encourage all internet stakeholders and legislators to work together to be able to develop a sound legislation that will best combat online piracy.<ref>

[http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/14/obama-administration-responds-we-people-petitions-sopa-and-online-piracy#.TxHV896y9Co.twitter Obama Administration Responds to We the People Petitions on SOPA and Online Piracy]</ref> Furthermore, the White House invited the petitioners of the proposed legislation to a conference call and will host an online event to "further discuss the issue with administration officials."<ref>[http://mashable.com/2012/01/16/white-house-sopa-petition/ White House Responds to Anti-SOPA Petition]</ref>

The popular social news website and forum, Reddit, announced with a week's notice that it would black out its own site from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on January 18th, 2012, to protest SOPA. The site was influential in bringing about the aforementioned boycott of GoDaddy following the [[registrar]]'s momentary support of the legislation.<ref>[http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/01/reddit-black-itself-out-protest-sopa.html Reddit Black Itself Out Protest Sopa, NYmag.com]</ref> Members of the site are trying to convince major websites like [[Google]], [[Amazon]], and Facebook to join in the protest. The move was originally inspired by Wikipedia, who was the first to consider blacking out its services in protest of SOPA.<ref>[http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/google-amazon-twitter-and-facebook-consider-nuclear-blackout/14307?tag=content;siu-container Google, Amazon, Twitter and Facebook consider 'nuclear' blackout, zdnet.com]</ref> [[Tucows]] announced on January 12th that it would be joining Reddit by blacking out its Software Download site for the same block of time.<ref>[http://tucowsinc.com/news/2012/01/why-we-dont-like-sopa/ Why We Don't Like Sopa, tucowsinc.com]</ref> Just a couple of days before the planned blackout, Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales announced that Wikipedia would be joining the protest,<ref>[http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57359763-93/wikipedia-to-join-web-blackout-protesting-sopa/ Wikipedia to join Web blackout protesting SOPA, cnet.com]</ref> blacking out for a full 24 hours. All content will be redirected to a letter from the Wikipedia community concerning SOPA and [[PIPA]], with a call to action for visitors to call or write the [[U.S. Congress]].<ref>[http://blogs.ft.com/fttechhub/2012/01/wikipedia-anti-sopa-blackout/#axzz1jesEZoYn Wikipedia’s anti-SOPA blackout will go ahead on Wednesday, blogs.ft.com]</ref> Other prominent sites participating by blocking some or all of their content included Wired,<ref>[http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/why-weve-censored-wired-com Why Weve Censored Wired, Wired.com]</ref> Craigslist, Google, Boing Boing, and others.<ref>[http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57360291/google-plans-to-use-home-page-to-protest-sopa/ Google plans to use home page to protest SOPA, cbsnews.com]</ref><ref>[http://boingboing.net/?p=139152 boingboing.net]</ref>

More than 115,000 sites participating, the strike garnered 10 million signatures to various petitions and more than 3 million emails sent to members of Congress.<ref>[http://www.sopastrike.com/numbers SOPA Strike Numbers]</ref>

Despite the participation of major American websites, such as Google, Wikipedia, and Cragislist, The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), a major supporter of SOPA, claimed that the January 18th anti-SOPA blackout failed to gain any significant traction.<ref>[http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120118/11484617455/denial-mpaa-pretends-that-no-big-sites-have-joined-sopapipa-protests.shtml?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter Denial MPAA Pretends That No Big Sites Have Joined SOPA PIPA Protests, TechDirt.com]</ref>  

Following the SOPA blackout, many senators and congressmen withdrew their support of the bill. Marco Rubio and Tim Holden notably withdrew their support of PIPA and SOPA respectively, they were both co-sponsors of those respective bills.<ref>[http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120118/11581717456/more-senators-dropping-off-as-co-sponsors-pipa.shtml?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter More Senators Dropping Off as Co-Sponsors PIPA, TechDirt.com]</ref> The Blackout  and online action by end-users were seen as being major reasons for Congressman Lamar Smith's decision to suspend the bill on January 20, 2012.<ref>[http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/20/lamar-smith-sopa-dead/ Lamar Smith SOPA Dead, VentureBeat.com]</ref> In a statement Cong. Smith said, “I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products." He promised that the House Judiciary Committee will continue work with copyright owners and internet companies and seek their inputs to be able to develop a legislation that will best address the online piracy problem and protect intellectual property rights and innovation.<ref>[http://lamarsmith.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=275770 Statement from Chairman Smith on SOPA]</ref>

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[[Category:Glossary]]