Few things could be more tragic to human rights in this nation than passage of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and/or the Protect IP Act (PIPA), introduced by several Senators from both parties. Intended originally to protect property rights to copyrighted material, they went way overboard making it impossible for content providers to protect themselves from being shut down for the smallest unintentional violation. Fortunately the Obama Administration has rejected SOPA and PIPA.
Opponents of online piracy regulation bills SOPA and PIPA scored a major victory on Saturday.
The White House has officially responded to two online petitions, "Stop the E-PARASITE Act" and "Veto the SOPA bill and any other future bills that threaten to diminish the free flow of information," which urged the President to reject SOPA and PIPA.
The authors of the statement, Victoria Espinel, Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator at Office of Management and Budget, Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Chief Technology Officer, and Howard Schmidt, Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator for National Security Staff, said that the White House will not support legislation that disrupts the open standards of the Internet.
"While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet," the statement read in part.
House of Representatives bill SOPA and its Senate counterpart PIPA are designed to target copyright violations by foreign-based websites that make available, for example, free movies and music without the permission of the U.S. rights holders…
Inserted from <Huffington Post>
I understand that, as a result, both House and Senate sponsors have pulled their respective versions to be rewritten, good news for everyone who uses the Internet.
16 Responses to “White House says NO to SOPA and PIPA”
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I don’t think there was a choice really here, there was overwhelming response on both sides of signatures and petitions to reject this – it was DOA – I think everyone knew that – the bills were unreasonable and poorly written. This isn’t really a feather in the cap of this administration – it was a no brainer!
Lee, I think that, if Obama walked on water, you’d complain that he didn’t use water softener. 😉
That’s a good one TomCat! I have said that if Obama walked on water they’d complain and say he could not swim! But I was talking about FOX “News”.
Thanks Sam. To listen to some on the left talk, they would be welcome on Faux Noise.
It may have been a no-brainer but if we had a RepublicanT in the WH, it porbably would have been signed into law.
Much like the republican that signed the NDAA…..OH I mean Democrat.
Welcome Ray. 🙂
There are several articles here discussing the NDAA and an Open Thread every day where people can discuss any topic, but this is discussion is not related to the NDAA. However, I suggest that you read it first.
Patty, Republicans and Democrats supported it for different reasons.
Republicans favor censorship of everything that does not goose-step to their party line.
Democrats favor unions, and the entertainment Unions wanted to them overcome piracy. I don’t think the unions or the supporting Democrats stopped to consider the side effects.
Both bills should die a permanent death.
I think they have, Jack.
What is to be rewritten ?/ Throw the entire stinking mess down the toilet where it belongs–I just hope we all note who supported this and vote accordingly!
Phyllis, I would not object to an anti-piracy bill that requires that webmasters be notified about specific © material on their sites, and gives them a reasonable time limit to to remove it, but could shut down sites that refuse to do so. Under SOPA and PIPA a site could be closed without notice for inadvertent material.
Rupert Murdoch Attacks Google, Obama In Pro-SOPA Twitter Rant
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/15/rupert-murdoch-sopa-twitter-google-obama_n_1207615.html
He’s the Fuhrer of the Republican Ministry of Propaganda, so I’m not at all shocked. 🙂
I hope Americans note if their representative/senator voted for this. One thing I noted is that there were a lot of Democrats involved. What could they be thinking of? — oh yeh, campaign contributions! . . . just like the Republican/Teabaggers! It is past time to get the big money out of politics. Look at Elizabeth Warren — 23,000 supporters averaging $64 per supporter. Now that’s grassroots and the way it should be.
These 2 bills would have affected people all around the world because the servers are in the US! One nation should not have that amount of power.
I hope they die, never to be seen again. I support copyright and intellectual property laws, but reasonable ones that don’t make the world into a big brother state.
Lynn, it isn’t that simple. See my reply to Patty.