Online Protests Help Postpone the PIPA Vote
“In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s vote on the PROTECT IP Act,” said Reid in a statement Friday morning.
The online protests help postpone the PIPA vote as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) put the brakes on a PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) cloture vote. In a cloture vote, the Senate decides whether or not to end debate on a bill and bring it forward for a final up-or-down vote. For such a vote to be successful, three-fifths of the Senate (or 60 Senators) must vote in the positive.
Meanwhile, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith said his committee is postponing consideration of PIPA’s House companion, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), “until there is wider agreement on a solution.”
On Wednesday, major websites such as Wikipedia and Reddit as well as Black Box Social Media went dark for 24 hours to protest both the PIPA and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Both Facebook and Google, which have been letting their disagreements with the legislation be known, provided users with information about the bills and contact information for elected officials. Google also launched an online petition, which gathered over 7 million signatures by Thursday morning.
“I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy,” he said. “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.” http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57362675-503544/pipa-vote-postponed-in-the-senate/
Even the 4 remaining candidates for the Republican ticket banded together to denounce the legislation as ineffective and anti-American.
PIPA and SOPA are intended to strengthen protections against copyright infringement and intellectual property theft, but Internet advocates say they would stifle expression on the World Wide Web. Here’s what Black Box Social Media had to same about the potential negative ramifications of these bills passing:
- PIPA & SOPA will censor the web. These bills would grant new powers to law enforcement to filter the Internet and block access to tools to get around those filters. We know from experience that these powers are on the wish list of oppressive regimes throughout the world. SOPA and PIPA also eliminate due process. They provide incentives for American companies to shut down, block access to and stop servicing U.S. and foreign websites that copyright and trademark owners allege are illegal without any due process or ability of a wrongfully targeted website to seek restitution.
- PIPA & SOPA will risk our industry’s track record of innovation and job creation. These bills would make it easier to sue law-abiding U.S. companies. Law-abiding payment processors and Internet advertising services can be subject to these private rights of action. SOPA and PIPA would also create harmful (and uncertain) technology mandates on U.S. Internet companies, as federal judges second-guess technological measures used by these companies to stop bad actors, and potentially impose inconsistent injunctions on them.
- PIPA & SOPA will not stop piracy. These bills wouldn’t get rid of pirate sites. Pirate sites would just change their addresses in order to continue their criminal activities. There are better ways to address piracy than to ask U.S. companies to censor the Internet. The foreign rogue sites are in it for the money, and we believe the best way to shut them down is to cut off their sources of funding. As a result, Google supports alternative approaches like the OPEN Act.
Despite relenting on the vote, Lamar Smith still had the following to say about the delaying of the vote:
“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,” Leay said. “Somewhere in China today, in Russia today, and in many other countries that do not respect American intellectual property, 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.”
I would have to say that passing a poorly written bill with negative consequences would be a knee-jerk reaction. This country needs to stop writing bills and taking action based on fear. Today’s delay was a positive step in the right direction.
What do you think? Do you think that Congress should’ve moved forward with the PIPA and SOPA bills as-is, or is this delay and rework a good idea? Leave your comment below and let us know your thoughts.