Will Piracy survive and how can it be stopped?
Over the weekend, there was a maelstrom of activity surrounding the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). With the U.S. House of Representatives reconvening today and the Senate following next week, now is a good time to catch a collective breath and figure out the status of the two bills.
They have similar goals: stopping online piracy and protecting copyright holders. However, detractors say they’re both hazardous to Internet stability, security and innovation. SOPA is a House bill, while PIPA‘s home is the Senate. If both bills were to pass, the minor differences between them would have to be worked out between those two chambers before being sent to White House for President Obama’s signature.
[More from Mashable: STOP SOPA Code Turns Any Site Dark to Protest Stop Online Piracy Act]
Stop Online Piracy Act
SOPA, introduced in October of last year, currently sits motionless in the House Judiciary Committee. That committee held a hearing on SOPA last November, followed by a markup session in mid-December. (In a markup session, a proposed bill is opened to other committee members for language changes, amendments and general debate).
Organizations that support SOPA include media outlets, their lobbying organizations and others.
[More from Mashable: The White House & SOPA: Reading Between the Lines]
By and large, the tech community has come out strongly against SOPA. Wikipedia, Reddit and now Imgur (a popular image hosting service) all plan to “go dark” to protest the bill Wednesday.
A public letter to Congress, signed by tech heavyweights such as Google and Facebook, called the bill dangerous to American innovation and cybersecurity, but also acknowledged that digital piracy is a real problem. The White House has also joined in with the anti-SOPA crowd in a blog post. And members of online communities such as Reddit have coalesced around their general disapproval of the bill, often claiming that Congress doesn’t possess a thorough enough understanding of the Internet to properly legislate around it.
In the House, opinion of SOPA hasn’t been neatly divided by party affiliation. Supporters of the bill, including author Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), believe SOPA is a necessary tool to combat online piracy and copyright theft. The bill’s strongest detractors, including Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), believe the bill to be hazardous to the infrastructure, speed and security of the Internet.
Before the House went on its winter recess, SOPA was shelved until the next session (which begins Tuesday).
SOPA was originally designed to give copyright holders and the federal government the right to remove infringing websites from the DNS (Domain Name System). Tech experts claimed this would have had negative consequences for the stability, speed and security of the Internet.
DNS works as a sort of “phone book” for the internet. When a user types a URL into a browser, DNS helps the users’ computer find and speak with the correct server hosting the content the user wants to access. If a website is taken off the DNS system, it becomes more difficult for the average Internet user to arrive at that site. (For more on DNS, watch this excellent explainer video from The Guardian)
On Friday, Rep. Smith announced he would remove the DNS removal provision from the bill.
The following Monday, it was reported that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) told Rep. Issa there would be no vote on SOPA without a “consensus” on the bill.
Rep. Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, planned to call top tech industry experts to testify to Congress Wednesday — think Mr. Smith Goes to Washington meets Revenge of the Nerds. That hearing has been postponed because of Cantor’s no-vote promise and Smith’s removal of the DNS provisions.
In a statement, Rep. Issa has urged SOPA opponents to turn their attention to the Senate, “where Majority Leader Reid has announced his intention to try to move similar legislation in less than two weeks.”
That similar legislation is the Protect IP Act.
Protect IP Act
PIPA has been around longer than SOPA, having been introduced in May of last year by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). According to GovTrack, the bill now has over 40 co-sponsors. As is true with SOPA, Senate opinion of PIPA doesn’t divide neatly down party lines.
PIPA is supported by many of the same groups that support SOPA — largely media outlets and their respective lobbies.
When SOPA was first introduced, it became the primary target of the tech community — the bill that was most often talked about. But PIPA, considered SOPA’s Senate “sister bill,” contains largely the same language which opponents have found so unpalatable in SOPA.
And PIPA, unlike SOPA, has found its way out of committee.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who considers PIPA a threat to free speech and technological innovation, placed a hold on the bill last May. In a statement, he said that “until the many issues that I and others have raised with this legislation are addressed, I will object to a unanimous consent request to proceed to the legislation.”
However, Sen. Wyden’s hold only lets the Majority Leader know of that Senator’s wishes, and Sen. Wyden doesn’t have the ability to prevent a vote on PIPA – which is happening Jan. 24.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-NV) scheduled a vote on PIPA for mid-January. Six Republicans wrote an open letter to Ried urging him to cancel the vote, saying they believe the process has happened too quickly and the Senate should take more time to hear testimony from digital experts.
As with SOPA, the author of PIPA has removed the DNS blocking and redirecting provisions of the bill. While SOPA is, for the moment, stuck in the House, the Senate is still currently planning a Jan. 24 vote on PIPA.
The MPAA, Hollywood’s lobbying group and a strong supporter of SOPA/PIPA, has said that DNS provisions are now “off the table.”
Protest & Discontent
Despite SOPA’s benched status and the DNS provisions being gone from both bills, the tech community is still fighting to kill off SOPA and PIPA permanently. Wikipedia, Reddit and Imgur have announced they are going dark tomorrow to protest the bills, while the President of Twitter called such a move “foolish” for his own company (while also saying to “watch this space”).
The NY Tech Meetup community is planning a public rally Wednesday at New York’s City Hall to protest the bill. Mashable will be reporting from the scene.
Images courtesy of iStockphoto, sjlocke ; Flickr, DJ Schulte
This story originally published on Mashable here.
