LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote
We won the battle, not the war. No one get complacent.
 |
So the internet may have won its first battle of many to come. We may have won this battle but we have not won the war.
Congress puts anti-piracy bills on ice - chicagotribune.com
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers on Friday indefinitely postponed anti-piracy legislation that pits Hollywood against Silicon Valley, two days after major Internet companies staged an online protest by blacking out parts of prominent websites.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid postponed a showdown vote in his chamber on the Protect Intellectual Property Act, or PIPA for short, that had been scheduled for January 24.
Lamar Smith, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, followed suit, saying his panel would delay action on similar legislation called the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, until there is wider agreement on the legislation.
"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," Smith said in a statement.
The bills are aimed at curbing access to overseas websites that traffic in pirated content and counterfeit products, such as movies and music. But support for the legislation has eroded in recent days because of fears that legitimate websites could end up in legal jeopardy.
The entertainment industry wants legislation to protect its movies and music from counterfeiters, but technology companies are concerned the laws would undermine Internet freedoms, be difficult to enforce and encourage frivolous lawsuits.
On Wednesday protests blanketed the Internet, turning Wikipedia and other popular websites dark for 24 hours. Google, Facebook, Twitter and others protested the proposed legislation but did not shut down.
In a brief statement, Reid said there was no reason why concerns about the legislation cannot be resolved. He offered no new date for the vote.
Reid's action comes a day after a senior Democratic aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the measure lacked the 60 votes needed to clear a procedural hurdle in the 100-member Senate.
A handful of senators who had co-sponsored the legislation dropped their support after Wednesday's protests started.
Reid expressed hope on Friday that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, who has been shepherding the bill through Congress, could help resolve differences in the legislation.
"I am optimistic that we can reach a compromise in the coming weeks," Reid said.
Leahy said in a statement that he was committed to addressing online piracy and hoped other members of Congress would work with him to get a bill signed into law this year.
"But the day will come when the Senators who forced this move will look back and realize they made a knee-jerk reaction to a monumental problem," he said.
"Criminals who do nothing but peddle in counterfeit products and stolen American content are smugly watching how the United States Senate decided it was not even worth debating how to stop the overseas criminals from draining our economy," Leahy said.
(Reporting By Thomas Ferraro and Jasmin Melvin; Editing by Bill Trott, Dave Zimmerman)
Nice. But as it was put before, couldn't they try this same thing with a different name?
Youtube page: www.youtube.com/user/Jebasaur
Indefinite means without definition. This just means they're pushing it back until certain condition is filled. Still haven't won.
BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK: VVVVVV? More like ZZZZZZ.
This is a never ending battle for sure they will come back with a new name with a slightly revised outcome for sure.
Lamar Smith really does like his internet censorship... I was by chance looking at his past bills, and this little gem popped up. Naturally, with such a double-speak title, I could not pass up the chance to look into it. But to my fear, it ended up worse than before.
Back in May of 2011, he sponsored this charming little bill: "The Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011" which would "mandate that the ISP that sells you Internet access would be required to track all of your Internet activity and save it for 18 months, along with your name, the address where you live, your bank account numbers, your credit card numbers, and IP addresses you've been assigned."
The Legislation That Could Kill Internet Privacy for Good - Conor Friedersdorf - Politics - The Atlantic
In that time, the bill was for the most part abandoned and most congressional sources have cited that it is dead but that does not mean it could not be brought up again. Since it passed through the committee by a 19-10 vote, it would be up to the Republican House leadership if they want to allow debate on the bill to proceed before calling a vote.
H.R. 1981: Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011 (GovTrack.us)
'Minority Report' Precrime for Real? House Bill Would Have Your Online Life Recorded in Case Police Ever Need - ABC News
Thankfully, Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who was also one of the most ardent opposing voices to SOPA, was one of the most vocal opponents of the bill. She presented an amendment to rename the bill to the "Keep Every American's Digital Data for Submission to the Federal Government Without a Warrant Act." So props out to her, again.
In personal commentary, this guy is really wants to full speed ahead towards a dystopian 1984-esque world. Either that, or he really, really hates the internet.
Do not forget about PIPA guys
Arron, Harry Reid, the Senate Majority leader announced that PIPA would be indefinitely shelved.Originally Posted by Arron Dominion
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/te...vote.html?_r=1
But as was mentioned previously, indefinitely does not necessarily imply permanently.
Posting Permissions
