Ding, dong, the bill is dead — or at the very least buried, even if it may well rise again in another form in a year or so.
Regardless, the withdrawal of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act and the tabling of PIPA (its equivalent in the Senate) Friday marks a stunning victory for Internet activists over Hollywood lobbyists.
Last week, the bills seemed certain to pass. Given the large amount of support from Congressmen who had received funding from the Motion Picture Association of America or the Recording Industry Association of America — Congressmen in both houses, on both sides of the aisle — the speed of the turnabout has us looking for explanations.
Naturally, no one person or organization brought this change about on their own. But who is most responsible? Should we thank Wikipedia for going dark and raising awareness? Google or Facebook, for taking smaller steps? Or the GOP presidential candidates who were suddenly united by their SOPA opposition at Thursday night's debate (and may well have influenced Rep. Lamar Smith, the bill's sponsor and a Republican)?
Or was it more a case of myriad small activists, too numerous to mention, banding together and encouraging the rest of us to call our representatives?
Take our poll — and let us know in the comments if there are any more candidates we should add to the list.
The PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011), better known as PIPA was introduced into the Senate by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). The act's goals were described by its sponsors as protecting intellectual property and punishing foreign sites who post copyrighted material. If a site was discovered doing so, the U.S. attorney general could order U.S. based Internet service providers, search engines, payment systems and advertising networks to suspend doing business with the website.
Photo courtesy Mikedish on Flickr
Five months later, a similar bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Lamar Smith (R-TX) named the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. The bill was very similar to PIPA.
Photo courtesy Ryanjreilly of Flickr.
In a blog post responding to a petition posted on the White House's website, the Obama Administration clearly laid out what it would – and would not – support in any new legislation designed to combat online piracy.
"While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response," said the note, "we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet."
Lamar Smith, the chief sponsor of SOPA, said that he is pulling the bill "until there is wider agreement on a solution."
Image courtesy of Kimonomania; Flickr.
Image courtesy of Kimonomania; Flickr.
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