The Stop Online Piracy Act: the SOPA story so far – The Verge

Inside Hollywood’s failed SOPA efforts — and a glimmer of hope

2012-01-26T16:32:44-05:00

sopa bootleg stand

The Hollywood Reporter offers up fresh details about the level of panic and frustration that built up as public sentiment turned against the MPAA and other entities involved in creating the far-reaching SOPA / PIPA efforts. THR details a phone call between MPAA president Chris Dodd and DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg in which the two discussed their concerns the White House would oppose SOPA. Dodd came away with the impression that nothing major was in the works, only to have the White House make its issues with the legislation public just days later.

Supporters of the anti-piracy measures are described as having felt betrayed b …

Read the full story at The Verge.

SOPA tabled by Rep. Lamar Smith, for now

2012-01-20T13:50:36-05:00

Congress

It looks like Wednesday's SOPA Blackout Day should be considered a success: Reuters is reporting that the Stop Online Piracy Act has been withdrawn by its chief sponsor, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith. This comes only hours after Senator Harry Reid announced that next Tuesday's scheduled vote on the Protect IP Act (PIPA) was going to be postponed. While the SOPA bill is off the table for now, there's no indication that it's being completely abandoned - Smith told Reuters that he's pulling the measure "until there is wider agreement on a solution," and also said that he has heard the critics loud and clear and is taking their …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Senator Reid delays PIPA vote as backlash mounts

2012-01-20T11:16:30-05:00

Harry Reid

Senator Harry Reid has announced that next Tuesday's vote on the Protect-IP Act has been canceled, but the bill is still far from dead. While Reid's statement vaguely cites "recent events" (i.e. massive voter disapproval) he insists that "counterfeiting and piracy cost the American economy billions of dollars and thousands of jobs each year" - the same heavy caveat of economic doom that other SOPA / PIPA supporters in Congress have provided since the controversy began. Reid says he's optimistic that a compromise will be reached in the coming weeks, as members of Congress work with stakeholders to craft legislation that's more likely to be su …

Read the full story at The Verge.

MPAA chairman Chris Dodd expresses regret over pro-SOPA strategy, calls for compromise

2012-01-20T09:58:03-05:00

Chris Dodd

Former Senator and current MPAA chairman Chris Dodd has acknowledged that SOPA and its Senate counterpart PIPA have an image problem. Dodd says that the bills were largely considered a "slam dunk" before the protests that culminated in a massive site blackout on Wednesday. After the protests had built momentum, however, "this was a whole new different game all of a sudden," he said. While SOPA author Lamar Smith said last week that he was confident the bill would pass, Dodd now seems more interested in talking about the mistakes made than the chances of SOPA and PIPA succeeding.

Dodd blames the bills' reduced support on a slow timeline that …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Neelie Kroes, VP of the European Commission, speaks out against SOPA

2012-01-20T08:54:25-05:00

Neelie Kroes

Wednesday's SOPA Blackout Day appears to have had its intended effect - a flood of attention was focused on the issue all week, and the Senate's website had trouble handling the influx of traffic from concerned citizens. A number of politicians have started withdrawing support for SOPA and PIPA, and the bills are now even being criticized by politicians from abroad. Neelie Kroes, VP of the European Commission, tweeted today that she was "glad [the] tide is turning on #SOPA; don't need bad legislation when should be safeguarding benefits of open net."

It's a strong and unambiguous position for a foreign politician to take regarding US policy …

Read the full story at The Verge.

US Senate websites hit with technical difficulties following SOPA blackout

2012-01-18T12:57:54-05:00

110th US Senate 2007

It looks like the SOPA blackout day has encouraged many citizens to get out and email their senators to voice their disapproval. If you head over to the US Senate's home page and reach this list of senators, many (if not all) of the "contact" links are currently returning a "technical difficulties" message. There's no evidence of foul play here (Anonymous is even currently under a blackout), and while it could be unrelated to SOPA, there's definitely a lot of major web properties driving visitors to the Senate's site today. Hopefully these issues get sorted out quickly so citizens can continue to make their voices heard.

Thanks to everyone …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Former senator and MPAA CEO Chris Dodd speaks out against SOPA blackouts

2012-01-18T10:49:11-05:00

MPAA Logo

The MPAA has taken notice of the many websites blacking out their content today in protest of SOPA, and thinks these companies would be better off supporting efforts to combat piracy rather than protesting. Chris Dodd, former senator and current MPAA CEO, starts his statement under the guise of concern, saying sites participating in blackout day (such as Reddit and Wikipedia) are "irresponsible" and "resorting to stunts that punish their users." He goes on to say that these blackouts are a "dangerous and troubling development" and an "abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace."

Closing with a bit of "you're …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Why The Verge and Vox Media are opposed to SOPA

2012-01-18T09:18:42-05:00

vergeblackout

It's a day of protest across the internet today, as Wikipedia, Google, Reddit, and others have all gone black to voice opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. We think the greater responsibility of The Verge as a news outlet is to serve our readers, so we're still up and running, but I wanted to take this opportunity to publish Vox Media's official SOPA position statement. As many of you know, Vox Media and The Verge are officially opposed to SOPA, and I worked closely with our general counsel Lauren Fisher to articulate the reasons why - although our company invests heavily in producing premium content, we feel SOPA is overbroad, …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The SOPA blackout: Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla, Google, and many others protest proposed law

2012-01-18T00:10:13-05:00

Wikipedia eclipse

Two new laws proposed by US legislators, the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, have been attracting a very negative reaction from the web community over the past couple of months, which is today culminating in a day of protests. Aiming to curtail copyright infringement on the web by giving the US government unprecedented new powers, both SOPA and PIPA have been rejected as overreaching and unhelpful laws that cannot coexist with a free and open internet.

The most outspoken protester of the bills today will be Wikipedia, whose English site will be going dark for the full 24 hours on January 18th, starting at midnight ET. It's also j …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Microsoft says it opposes SOPA

2012-01-17T18:54:40-05:00

Microsoft offices stock image

Microsoft took the chance to oppose SOPA on Tuesday, just hours before a Wikipedia blackout. The controversial bill has attracted a lot of attention this week as Google and Wikipedia both pledged to ensure web users stay fully informed of the sweeping changes that SOPA could bring. Microsoft says it opposes SOPA "as currently drafted," but doesn't reveal if the company plans to take any protest action. The software maker issued the following statement:

"We oppose the passage of the SOPA bill as currently drafted. We think the White House statement points in a constructive way to problems with the current legislation, the need to fix them, and …

Read the full story at The Verge.