Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act abandonned
Posted by Dexter Nelson: Monday, January 23, 2012 (5:42 PM)
Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act Abandonned
It's official. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) is dead, (at least for the time being. Amidst the wave of news that flooded my inbox over the weekend, I waited until today to post about it, because I wanted to wade through a lot of conflicting reasons.
Despite all of the reasons out there, I tend to agree with the IDG version, which states...
For Internet activists, last week's Web protests against two controversial copyright enforcement bills were a huge victory against three powerful and well-funded trade groups that pushed hard for passage of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act.
By the time the week was over, dozens of lawmakers had abandoned the two bills or voiced opposition, and a cloture vote on PIPA scheduled for this Tuesday in the Senate was delayed as lawmakers try to find a compromise. In the House, Representative Lamar Smith, the lead SOPA sponsor and Texas Republican, killed his bill.
Yet in all of this, no one has seemed to mention the youtube video that went viral in the middle of the week from Mike Mozart of Jeepers Media, who layed out the fact like no one else has ever done. He was quick to point out that the supporters of the bills were the ones with exclusive distribution rights to the piracy software and he dared to ask, why would the people who distribute piracy software want to pass SOPA and PIPA?
This is one of the few movements I became active in and I sent a copy of the video with a summary to my congressman and state lawmakers, and encouraged a lot of others to do the same. By the time even I realized how many people were contacting their representatives, this video had already been featured on /r/worldpolitics - Reddit's international political community.
Here's a look at the video.
Either way, I'm glad it's dead. Many thanks to the thousands of protestors and every other person who got up and blacked out, lobbied against, and contacted lawmakers.
