BREAKING (and therefore soon to be updated): The author of the patently unconstitutional and completely evil Stop Online Piracy Act, Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX [where else?]), just released a press release late Friday evening saying:
Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today said he plans to remove a provision in the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261) that requires Internet Service Providers to block access to certain foreign websites.
Chairman Smith: “After consultation with industry groups across the country, I feel we should remove Domain Name System blocking from the Stop Online Piracy Act so that the Committee can further examine the issues surrounding this provision. We will continue to look for ways to ensure that foreign websites cannot sell and distribute illegal content to U.S. consumers.
F@#$ YEAH!!!!! Go Internetz!!!!
For those of you unfamiliar with Washington-speak, “Domain Name System blocking” is SOPA’s language for “We’ll f@#$ing cut off your entire site without any due process if anyone complains about you harboring copyrighted material.” It’s a kick in the nuts to freedom of speech and still wouldn’t do a damn thing about the real piracy problems.
BUT, the battle is not completely won. We’ve still got a long way to go to kick this bill’s ass all the way to the recycling bin where it belongs. The whole idea that they’re going to “look at it” concerns me that they’ll just replace it with some innocuous sounding language that would still have the same effect (see: what happend with the NDAA recently). I’m not alone in my suspicions, since Mike Masnick from TechDirt expressed similar suspicions about a statement earlier today from Vermont Senator (and Batman fan) Patrick Leahy.
But this is a big deal. We’ve made SOPA bleed, which means the combined power of the internets is still influential even over politics dominated by entertainment mega-corporations and their seemingly infinite ability to fund campaigns.
To put her down for good, please join us on Wednesday, Jan 18th, when BigShinyRobot! and probably most of your other favorite sites GO DARK all day. This is to give you an idea of what it is like if suddenly vast portions of the internet got shut down, which is what SOPA would allow. To add your site to the list of those striking and to see which sites will be unavailable (WHAT? Cheezburger network and Reddit? Where will i get my internet cats and daily snark meow?), please visit http://sopastrike.com/
Regardless, SOPA is still likely to be voted on soon– unless you call your Congresscritter and tell them NO!!!! For more instructions and talking points, you can visit http://americancensorship.org/modal/sopastrikeoverlay.html but in general, if you call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121, ask for your Representative/Senator and tell them NO on SOPA. Remember, you’ve got one Representative but can call both of your Senators. Are you like 70% of Americans who don’t know who their Congressman is? Or just want a direct number for them? Click here and put in your address and it will give you names, addresses, and phone numbers so you may deluge your elected leaders with your opinions. But remember they’re probably not in the office until Tuesday because of that whole federal holiday and weekend thing.
In the meantime here are a couple other places we’ve talked about SOPA here on Big Shiny Robot! and where we come down on piracy vs freedom of speech.
The last article I posted on SOPA got me called a shill, criticized my spelling, and generated more comments than any other BSR story so far this year, so let’s talk in the comments section– and make sure you spread this every where you can!