10/03, 9:20pm
Comments also made about Google search, 'four strikes' rules
Chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America and former Senator Christopher Dodd told Wired in an interview that the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) are not going to return to to the congressional floor. Dodd claimed that "that legislation is gone. It’s over. It’s not coming back" after an appearance at the San Francisco-based Commonwealth Club on Tuesday night.
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02/06, 9:30pm
Lawmakers asked to take "fresh perspective"
A long list of companies and organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Open Congress, have sent an open letter urging congressional lawmakers to take an entirely new approach to intellectual property law. The authors suggest concerns raised over SOPA and PIPA legislation are "too fundamental and too numerous" to be resolved through "hasty revisions" to the existing bills.
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02/01, 8:55pm
Trade group claims legislation will worsen problem
The Recording Industry Association of America has come out swinging in opposition to an anti-piracy bill that has been proposed in the wake of the much-derided Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act. The new proposal, referred to as the Open Act (PDF), relies on the International Trade Commission to investigate copyright infringement claims.
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01/25, 6:05pm
MPAA only now edging towards balance
A new exposé of some of the actions behind the scenes of SOPA's rejection has shown the fundamental disconnect between the MPAA and differing points of view as well as signs that there may be progress, if slow, on an alternative. MPAA president and former Democratic senator Chris Dodd explained to The Hollywood Reporter that he had been "assured" there would be no major opposition from the White House and was caught unawares when the administration suggested it would veto either SOPA or its Senate equivalent PIPA if they passed a vote. MPAA members had started to "pick up signals" of resistance at the start of January, but they sincerely thought they had made concessions and felt "bitterly betrayed" as a result.
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01/20, 10:30pm
Megaupload returns fire after shutdown
Megaupload reacted vigorously to shutdowns and arrests with action of its own. In conversation with Reuters, defending attorney Ira Rothken said Megaupload was "looking at its legal options" to bring its site back online. The lawyer objected to FBI and media industry claims that Megaupload was a criminal conspiracy and said that simply having a file upload service wasn't grounds for the raids this week.
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01/20, 8:00pm
ESA drops SOPA support only after too late
The Entertainment Software Association engaged in what many saw as bandwagoneering Friday after it dropped its previous support for the Stop Online Piracy Act. Now that the bill had been indefinitely postponed following large-scale protests, the game advocacy group switched to arguing for a law that "balances both creative and technology interests." It claimed to have wanted an even approach "from the beginning."
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01/20, 5:05pm
Neelie Kroes Twits against SOPA bill
The latest to speak out against the controversial SOPA and PIPA bills is European Union Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes. "Glad tide is turning on SOPA: don't need bad legislation when should be safeguarding benefits of open net," she wrote in a Twitter message. The legislation, if passed, would give the US Justice Department to shut down sites simply suspected of sharing pirated content.
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01/20, 10:50am
PIPA put on hold after stiff opposition
Both Congress and the Senate have delayed votes on their joint controversial Senate majority leader Harry Reid has stated that he decided to at least delay the vote on the controversial Protect IP Act (PIPA). He explained it as a reaction to "recent events," a euphemism for the widescale protests that turned numerous Senators against the bill.
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01/17, 5:40pm
SOPA activity resumes next month
Republican Congressman and Judiciary Committee chair Lamar Smith stated Tuesday that the Stop Online Piracy Act would resume the drafting process in February. Despite hopes from opponents that a shelving meant it was stopped, the contentious bill would be back to the markup phase. Pre-election retreats were the immediate reason for the pause, Smith said.
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01/14, 4:00pm
Obama White House says SOPA DNS changes won't work
The Obama administration in a direct response on Saturday hinted it would veto any version of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and by extension the Protect IP Act (PIPA), that included domain name blocking. The White House statement said that any proposal had to be narrowly focused on clearly criminal activity and "must not tamper" with the DNS system that translates web domains to IP addresses. Officials wanted "sound legisltation," but saw a bill like SOPA as compromising Internet security efforts like DNSSEC without solving the real problem.
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01/13, 9:40pm
SOPA to no longer censor outside sites
Key Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) promoter Representative Lamar Smith stated Friday that he wanted to remove the domain name blocking provision from the proposed bill. He wanted the Congressional Judiciary Committee to "further examine the issues" surrounding the measure, according to CNET. A corresponding move was already underway with the Senate equivalent of the bill, Protect IP (PIPA), from Senator Patrick Leahy.
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