Websites like Wikipedia, Google, BoingBoing, BuzzFeed, Wired, and Firefox either blacked out or self-censored in protest of two online piracy bills winding their way through Congress—the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect I.P. Act in the Senate.
As explained by CNNMoney, the bills aim to “crack down on copyright infringement by restricting access to sites that host or facilitate the trading of pirated content.”
“Both sides say they agree that protecting content is a worthy goal. But opponents say that the way SOPA is written effectively promotes censorship and is rife with the potential for unintended consequences.”
“Legislation that just weeks ago had overwhelming bipartisan support and had provoked little scrutiny generated a grass-roots coalition on the left and the right,” The New York Times reported. “Wikipedia made its English-language content unavailable, replaced with a warning: “Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet.” Visitors to Reddit found the site offline in protest. Google’s home page was scarred by a menacing black swatch that blotted out the search engine’s label…. One by one, prominent backers of the bills dropped off.”
According to ProPublica, Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe is against the legislation, while Sen. Tom Coburn is leaning toward no. The opinions of Oklahoma’s other delegates are unknown.
Local political blogger Michael Bates, who restricted access to most of his site, BatesLine, today in a show of solidarity to those protesting the bills, wrote: “Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn is one of seven Protect IP Act (PIPA) co-sponsors who last Friday asked Majority Leader Harry Reid not to hold a vote on PIPA, because of the outcry against the bill. Jim Inhofe does not have a public position on the issue, according to OpenCongress.org, nor does Congressman John Sullivan.”
Jim Inhofe later posted his opposition to SOPA and PIPA on his website, making the following statement:
While I believe that the intellectual property rights of American companies deserve substantial protection under the law, S. 968, the PROTECT-IP Act, is not the answer to the problem of online counterfeiting and piracy. I share the concerns of America’s technology companies, industry leaders, and the many citizens who have voiced their concerns to my office. It is clear to me that this bill will inflict too heavy a burden on third-party non-infringing entities and could do serious harm to one of the last vestiges that is relatively free from government regulation, the Internet. When addressing intellectual property rights, Congress must be careful to also protect the freedom of speech and flow of information that the Internet provides. Additionally, I have concerns with creating yet another private right of action, which will be used by plaintiffs to stifle Internet innovation, and with requirements in the bill that could negatively impact the Internet’s reliability and performance.
Rep. Sullivan (sort of) posted his position on the issue on his Facebook page today:
I appreciate the thousands of comments, emails and phone calls today on SOPA. Like my constituents, I also have significant concerns that this legislation, as currently written, limits our First Amendment right to free speech on the Internet. I do believe Congress should address legislation to protect intellectual property rights, BUT must be mindful that the bills intended to protect honest American innovators are not doing more harm than good.
“…(F)or all the campaign contributions, Washington parties and high-priced lobbyists the old economy could muster, nothing could compare to the tentacles the new economy can reach into Americans’ everyday lives through sites like Wikipedia,” NYT reported. “It appeared by Wednesday evening that Congress would follow Bank of America, Netflix and Verizon as the latest institution to change course in the face of a netizen revolt…
“Negotiators from both parties are scrambling for new language that could assuage the concerns of the Internet community, but expectations are that the bill will now fail to get the 60 votes to move forward — a significant setback.”
—Holly Wall, News Editor
