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Saturday 21 January 2012

INTERNET WINS: VOTES ON PIPA/SOPA INDEFINITELY POSTPONED



After much controversy and a cyber war, the storm over the anti-piracy legislation, SOPA and PIPA, has subsided after the US Congress decided to indefinitely postpone votes on both.

This should come as a relief, albeit temporarily, to all of us since whatever happens in the US with respect to the two Acts would have a massive impact on how we use the internet.
Internet wins: Votes on PIPA/SOPA indefinitely postponed
By Stephen C. Webster, The Raw Story, 20 January 2012.

After vowing to move forward with votes on controversial anti-piracy legislation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) both announced Friday that the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)  had been postponed indefinitely...

[Senator] Reid’s announcement comes just one day after a whip count by Open Congress revealed a critical mass of Senators had turned against PIPA after the Internet’s first major, coordinated work stoppage on Wednesday caused millions to contact their members of Congress to demand the bill be scrapped. It takes just 41 votes to stop a bill from moving through the Senate, and so far 38 members are either confirmed “No” votes, or are leaning toward a “No” on the issue.

In the wake of Wednesday’s Internet strike, Republicans largely fled from their support of PIPA while Democrats, who’ve taken significantly more money than Republicans from interest groups like the Motion Picture Association of America, held fast to their support.

Reid’s cancellation of the Senate vote represents a major victory for Internet activists and a significant setback for entrenched entertainment industry interests. The bill is not likely to go away, however — supportive senators have in recent weeks been discussing changes, such as removing provisions that would mandate search engine and DNS blockades, but it remains to be seen when those may emerge...

Read the full article here.

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