New developments on SOPA this week
Bob Goodlatte
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) continues to generate news and controversy.
We wrote yesterday about continuing political fallout from the legislation and questioned whether it may make Congressman Bob Goodlatte — an outspoken supporter — vulnerable to a challenger this year.
But recent days there have been a number of developments.
President Barack Obama said he does not support the bill.
The chief sponsors of SOPA and its companion bill in the Senate said they would remove one of the bills’ most controversial pieces, the so-called Domain Name System (DNS) provision that would require Internet service providers to block access to overseas Web sites accused of piracy.
And members of the House leadership say they will hold off on any floor vote for SOPA until there’s more consensus.
Meanwhile, however, officials in the content industry who support the bill are pushing for lawmakers to continue work, even on a weakened version. The English-language version of Wikipedia is planning a shutdown tomorrow to protest the legislation.
ABC News has posted an explainer on the bills and ensuing controversy, if you’re interested in a quick rundown of what’s going on.
January 17, 2012 - 12:51 PM
Here’s another explain from The Hill, which describes the SOPA fight as a fight between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Or, more accurately, a fight between copyright holders (film studios, music industry, etc.) who want to crack down on piracy and Internet providers and other websites (Wikipedia, for instance) who fear that the crackdown on pirates will hurt them instead.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/203737-hollywood-or-silicon-obama-must-choose
Republicans often like to run against Hollywood, but here’s a case where some Republicans — such as our own Bob Goodlatte — are on Hollywood’s side.
To be fair, it’s a lot more complicated than that, but I thought the Hill had a clever way of summarizing the issue.
– Dwayne Yancey, senior editor
If I were a voter in Mr. Goodlatte’s district, he would lose my support based on this Bill.
SOPA is extremely bad legislation, and it was written and introduced by Bob Goodlatte, in his role as Chairman of the Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet Subcommittee late last year. SOPA co-sponsor Lamar Smith who chairs the Judiciary Committee, has taken much of the criticism. But the bill is Bob’s baby.
Bob’s bad bill creates blacklisting, increases bureaucratic power over Internet providers and users, and is technologically misaligned with — and even destructive of — the architecture of the Internet.
Wednesday’s blackout shouldn’t have been necessary, but Bob doesn’t listen to the people, to entrepreneurs, or to the technology community. What should really embarrass and enrage 6th District residents is that our very own official in Congress has nearly singlehandedly, by taking money and advice from Hollywood content producers and big pharma/big ag (Pfizer/Monsanto), cost businesses millions of dollars in revenue and inconvenienced many more millions of internet users. Bob Goodlatte — in our name — has told the world he doesn’t support due process and the traditional American concept of innocent until proven guilty.
Bob’s out of touch, and all of 6th District should be ashamed of him. I know James Madison and Thomas Jefferson would be.
This legislation should be re-named “The Lawyers Full-Employment Work Act, o the “Chinese Internet for All Act”.
On-line forums could be effectively shut down without due process, and exposed to endless litigation, because of material posted by their users. Search engines would be required to delete forums from search results.
In order to avoid this, forum moderation would increase to an absurd level and become a hardship for web sites and users alike.
Doesn’t Rep. Bob have vested interest in a lawyer company? This is worse than a bad idea, it is destructive to democracy.
Bob Goodlatte has a great sense support for Virginia tech in it’s academics, sports, technology, and liberal arts. I believe that by supporting this bill he greatly upsets me and the other members of the Hokie community. Virginia Tech has Firewalls and server laws against piracy and torrenting over the internet. Infact, a friend of mine received an email from the server for doing that and was forced to clear out the files. This bill does not just stop piracy, that can be done fairly simply. It is like said above a battle of entertainment companies and web and computer companies. It disrupts the educational process that goes on here at Virginia tech. There is a video on the internet of the VT Hokies on a thursday night gave against Georgia Tech pumping up to Enter Sandman. Who wouldn’t love to share this experience again? Would it be banned because of it’s use of the Metallica song? would it be banned as property of ESPN? And that’s just part of it. Virginia Tech Students want to be able to use every resources available to excel creatively and academically. In todays world, passing this bill is like trying to put a box around our minds. Not only putting VT at a disadvantage, but other institutions statewide and nation wide. If even UVA and VT students can find common ground on this issue, one person should be able to hear the voice of the local, national, and international public.
It’s very weird….what’s his dog in this fight? I don’t get his interest in this topic, and certainly don’t get how his constituents benefit from this legislation.
Mr. Goodlatte, get your filthy hands off my internet.
Kristen –
Not to speak for Congressman Goodlatte, but if you look at my story on Sunday, he spoke a bit about Rosetta Stone, which produces language learning software, has been the victim of piracy and supports SOPA.
Since Rosetta Stone is a major employer in Harrisonburg, which is part of the 6th District, I think that’s a big part of his dog in the fight, so to speak.
– Mason Adams
Ok Mason, thank you. Sorry to ask such a dumb question. :/
Not a dumb question at all. It’s one I’ve been asked quite a bit since Sunday’s story.
– Mason Adams
I think I mentioned in an earlier post about Rosetta Stone, too.
Folks need to understand this has the potential to lead to exactly what Iran and China do to their internet. They will essentially be able to control what we are allowed to see on the internet. Websites that oppose Big Pharma, Monsanto, Big Food, etc – all those SHUT DOWN b/c they are deemed a “threat”. They will have the ability to do these things. The programming of the American people has begun. You think the Media is bad? You haven’t seen anything yet.
It is no secret Goodlatte is against online poker, as well. Is he going to want to shut down Farmville now,too?
Mason,
You might also want to take a look a OpenSecrets dot org. They show that Goodlatte’s third largest contributor in 2010 ($56,500) was the Entertainment Industry, and is his second largest so far for the 2012 cycle ($32,500). This buys a lot of dog food in the 6th, apparently…
Oh to have Rick Boucher with his deep understanding of technology and the internet in the House . . . Too bad his seat was bought out from under him by a blatant outsider using other’s money to gain influence and votes to go their way. We can only hope that Boucher decides to run again and is able to gain his seat back.
What I think Mr. Goodlatte seem to forget is people who are going to pirate are going to do it regardless. What SOPA will do is give the government more power to shut down sites without due process. Ironic for a man who clams to want smaller government, less regulation, and believes in the Constitution is the co sponsor of a bill that is the complete opposite of it. Yet its not a shock; this is today’s GOP all the talk none of the real conservatism they claim to have.
We dug back to November, and re-posted on SOPA, with updates…
http://www.roanoketeaparty.com/2012/01/another-day-another-day-of-federal-overreach/