Pat yourself on the back, Internet. You did it. You killed the awful Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Here’s how:
First, the Obama White House delivered a knock down blow to the bill over the weekend. Specifically, the administration said it would only support legislation that will:
“Narrowly target only sites beyond the reach of current U.S. law, cover activity clearly prohibited under existing U.S. laws, and be effectively tailored, with strong due process and focused on criminal activity.”
In other words, “NO YOU CANNOT HAZ INTARWEBS KILLSWITCH KTHXBYE!” Lamar Smith was already under fire, stripping out the DNS-blocking portions of the bill, but odds were pretty good at this point that the bill in its current form was dead meat with the threat of a veto suddenly looming. And then this morning came the knock out punch.
Reports Ad Week:
The controversial Stop Online Piracy Act has been stopped dead in its tracks in the House. Until there is broader consensus among the lawmakers about legislation that would crack down on foreign Web sites that infringe on U.S. copyright material and counterfeit goods, Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R.-Va.) has agreed SOPA would not come before the House for a vote.
…
It’s a major victory for opponents of SOPA and its Senate counterpart, PIPA, who have charged that SOPA and PIPA bill provisions would damage the architecture of the Internet. They’ve mounted an aggressive marketing and lobbying campaign to stop both bills, rallying big technology companies to take on big content companies in the fight.
“The voice of the Internet community has been heard. Much more education for members of Congress about the workings of the Internet is essential if anti-piracy legislation is to be workable and achieve broad appeal,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who, along with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has offered an alternative bill known as OPEN.
While this is obviously great news, stay vigilant, Internet, as this fight is likely far from over. Consider this a victory in a battle. A much larger war remains to be fought.
(Image via Shutterstock)