U.S. Congress Shelves SOPA Pages 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 NEXT | |
 The U.S. Congress has suspended action on SOPA following opposition to the legislation from the White House. I don't think any piece of proposed legislation has ever been the subject of condemnation and opposition as widespread as that of the Stop Online Piracy Act, better known far and wide as SOPA. A number of prominent game developers and publishers have come out against the act [although the Entertainment Software Association, unfortunately, remains a supporter] and many high-profile websites, including Reddit, Mojang and Boing Boing, intended to "go black" on January 18 in protest. The backlash against it was quite literally unprecedented. And, rather amazingly, it seems to have worked. On Saturday, the Obama administration, which had until that point not taken a position on the issue, came out against the bill with a statement posted on the White House Blog. "While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet," it said. "Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small," it continued. "Proposed laws must not tamper with the technical architecture of the Internet through manipulation of the Domain Name System (DNS), a foundation of Internet security. Our analysis of the DNS filtering provisions in some proposed legislation suggests that they pose a real risk to cybersecurity and yet leave contraband goods and services accessible online. We must avoid legislation that drives users to dangerous, unreliable DNS servers and puts next-generation security policies, such as the deployment of DNSSEC, at risk." Shortly after that, the U.S. Congress shelved the bill. "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," House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa said in a separate statement. "Majority Leader [Eric] 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." Prior to the stepdown, SOPA's sponsor, Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, made a "major concession" by agreeing to drop a provision in the act that required internet providers to block infringing websites. Even with that provision removed, however, Issa described the bill as "fundamentally flawed." Another SOPA-like bill could always be proposed at some point in the future [and, let's face it, almost certainly will] but for now, I think we can call this a win. | |
Hooray and stuffs. Now we can breathe easy... for a little while. :3 Hopefully that bill stays where it is and never ever sees the light of day again. Good thing that the US Congress is pretty good at that sort of thing anyway. EDIT: And... cool, I made the first post. :o | |
Now I know who I'm voting for next year. Well met Executive Branch. Well met. | |
And in the spirit of this win, I will post Copyrighted material. Play it again Bison, Play it again... | |
SOPA is down, but the government has yet to comment on PIPA, which to be honest is even worse. | |
[insert obligatory YES! YES! image] Hooray! The internet has been saved! EDIT: Damn ninja's, putting up videos... | |
I already knew that even before this. I wouldn't have known if Obama had signed this. | |
WOW! Washington actually did something that made sense! Then again, they did something by not doing anything, I guess I shouldn't be that surprised. | |
Woop Woop! Now lets hope PIPA also gets the kick... | |
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, SOPA only rests. It will return. | |
If you apply logic to this, they denied SOPA, which is just a minor edit of PIPA. | |
Yay! Good news! But I REALLY want to see what happens with PIPA before I break out the champagne. | |
Considering that in the quotes
Agreed. If you look at the quotes from the chamber representatives it's clear to see that the majority of the House believes that both bills were fundamentally flawed. Seeing as how the Protect IP Act performs in a very similar way to SOPA I'd believe Obama would veto it as well if it made it through Senate. | |
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Victory is ours! At least, for now. Now for PIPA. | |
Well looks like all the fuss was for nothing and it turns out the sky, is indded, not falling after all. The bill never had a chance from the get go of making it out of The House (as I said it wouldn't multiple times over). I won't dispute it was horrible but it has absolutely ZERO chance of being put into law. I guess now the internet can take a rest and get themselves ready for the next Bill/Law that gets them all in a collective tizzy and screaming about the end of days. At least watching people grossly over react is amusing I suppose. . . . | |
yay!!! one down, one to go :D | |
I don't think I've ever been so glad our government can't get anything done.
Don't worry I hear they have top men working on it, Top... Men | |
Well, I say this calls for the dance of joy. EVERYONE! | |
Inb4-
Wait, scratch that. Here he is. I'm done giving a shit about these stupid little laws that materialize out of the government's ass which even if they do pass, never really act upon. Now that that is over, can the government move on to trying to fix actual issues? No? Alrighty then! | |
You automatically get a billion bro points for mentioning that horrific verse. A. Billion. OT: Hurray! I suspected that the White House would do something like this. Good to see my tax payer dollars are doing something. Mister Obama? You are looking better and better for 2012 all the time. | |
Viva l'internet revolution! Honestly living in Britain SOPA wouldn't affect me as much as it would Americans but I've been following the bills progress and hoping it dosen't pass. Now go deal with PIPA would you kindly? | |
This is disgusting. Almost all the criticisms were based on lies. The fact that this is seen as some sort of victory is appauling and shows how few have bothered to read the bill and how mass ignorance has controlled the internet and will simply harm the industries we love so much. | |
I realize you already posted it, but still... Now that we got that out of the way...
Please, kindly explain exactly what you mean. EDIT: Fuck it, don't even bother. I read your other posts. I'm happy enough about this to pull out hipster logic and say "you just don't get it, man." Or "U MAD BRO?" That works too. | |
... OP: YESSSS!!! | |
It's not over yet; PIPA is still up for a vote soon, and chances are good that SOPA's only being shelved until after the elections, when people will theoretically have their guards down. I hate to be such a pessimistic downer, but it's not going to truly be done with until both bills are properly dead and those who co-sponsored it are voted out of office. I'll breathe a sigh of relief for now, but after that, I'll go back to holding my breath. | |
Here's an extract from a thread I did: Did you ever read the actual Bill that was proposed? If you read through that you may be surprised at the realisation that almost all the points made by the opposition towards SOPA is simply wrong. There were claims that SOPA could be enacted without any need for evidence, or very loose evidence. There were claims that SOPA could be enacted with no consequences. There were claims that SOPA would not allow any defence against it being enacted. There were claims that SOPA would remove freedom of speech. Surprised? In short, you were all lied to and the result will be that the gaming, film and music industry will lose billions due to people not bothering to read what they were so happy to criticise. | |
Even a small victory is a victory. It's a step in the right direction, and for now, it's a big enough one to celebrate. | |
So... if we were all lied to, what would SOPA do? | |
You may regret saying that on the internet....where all the Anti-Sopa types are.... | |
You make quite a good point. Unfortunately, after what happened with the NDAA, I'm still nervous. | |
Listen, Dr. Phil, I honestly believe the guy doesn't understand the issue, so I think we should just leave it alone and enjoy the victory. Just go on fucking that Awesomeface. | |
Holy shit!... is it possible?... we... we won!?? | |
So you are happy to pirate? Is that what you are saying? http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.338364-U-S-Congress-Shelves-SOPA#13689437 Because all the criticisms for SOPA are based on lies. Have a read yourself, the actual bill is linked in the link above. | |
So you have read the bill then? If so then please tell me what the problem is with making sure pirating doesnt happen and increasing the penalties on importing dangerous and illegal goods. | |
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