SOPA And PIPA Shelved Indefinitely
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Remember when your mom said whining never helped anything? Turns out she was wrong! Ever since the day the 'Net went dark, politicians -- ranging from Congressmen to presidential candidates to European Internet czars -- have been tripping over themselves backing away from the political hot potato. This morning, even more heartening events occurred: the lead sponsors behind the bills announced that both PIPA and SOPA have been shelved indefinitely.
Now, that doesn't quite mean they're dead -- SOPA and PIPA may just be sleeping until the collective herd forgets about the uproar -- but it definitely puts a damper on their odds of passage. Even if SOPA and PIPA die on the political vine due to widespread opposition and upcoming elections, don't expect this to be the end of things. IP theft is still a real issue and one that the government and big business alike take seriously, as evidenced by the closing line in an announcement released by the MPAA this morning:
"It is incumbent that (SOPA/PIPA critics) now sincerely work with all of us to achieve a meaningful solution to this critically important goal."
(Of course, he also took time to signal the shelving as a hammer-blow to the knee of America's interests. "As a consequence of failing to act, there will continue to be a safe haven for foreign thieves; American jobs will continue to be lost; and consumers will continue to be exposed to fraudulent and dangerous products peddled by foreign criminals.")
The sponsors of both bills still hope to reach a political tenable compromise with the 'Net in upcoming days: if we hear of SOPA stirring from its new-found slumber, we'll let you know.
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Holly Golightly
January 21, 2012 at 9:52pm
It is good that SOPA and PIPA have been shelved indefinitely... But have we forgotten Mega Upload already? The problem is, Hollywood has become soo disconnected with the USA market. With endless remakes and constant reality complemented with high subscription prices... It seems like Hollywood does not deserve any money at all.
I have an important question... What the hell is up with this "Foreign Criminals verses Innocent American Jobs?" We can not assume that Americans never pirate now, can we? There are plenty of hardworking foreigners who make better movies and shows compared to the Americans. Also, there are criminals in America who sell $5 bootlegs in the streets of New York, and these guys make a profit! So by stereotyping foreigners as criminals is wrong and just plain racist...
praack
January 23, 2012 at 8:16am
nice point- i saw a ton of bootleg for less in mumbai on my last visit
but no american presence there
sopa and pipa were to keep the US locked down- and if your site had a .com they claimed rights based on the fact that the domain register is in the US for .com
in reality it had nothing to do with actual piracy where it counted but to continue the stranglehold on the US citizen.
Ah well- as shown with the continued fallout from megaupload they do not even need the laws in place.
win7fanboi
January 23, 2012 at 6:35am
They do that so american citizens would think " ... oh they don't care about us ripping movies in the us of a. They are after the bad guys in other countries. They are hoping that by doing that SOPA/PIPA would pass through more easily. Except everyone knows better. MPAA/studios have a long record of being over zealous and tyrant about persecuting american citizens. They have been trying to make examples out of the ones they catch by trying to extort unrealistic and unfair amount from regular joe/jane.
tekknyne
January 22, 2012 at 6:47am
I'm not the most creative person, so I don't really know what it's like to get robbed of my "intellectual property". But at some point it would be nice for all these MPAA dooshes to start talking in terms that actually reach people instead of just saying in essence "I'm entitled to all this money for making shitty movies gimme gimme gimme!".
win7fanboi
January 23, 2012 at 6:39am
Not only that they want us to pay over and over again for the same movie. Watch it in theaters, you pay, want to watch it at home, you pay, want to upgrade to the latest format (blu ray), you guess it. And after doing that that you are still not allowed to rip the movie you bought to watch it on a plane on your laptop or finish watching the movie on your phone. They need a new business model.
bautrey
January 21, 2012 at 4:08pm
Politics, the art of delaying a decision until it is no longer applicable.
tekknyne
January 21, 2012 at 11:37am
I love how these kindergarten dill-holes try to draw a line the sand like it's the USA vs the world. We all live on the same planet and the only enemy I see is the people coming up with this insanity.
tekknyne
January 21, 2012 at 11:34am
I love how these kindergarten dill-holes try to draw a line the sand like it's the USA vs the world. We all live on the same planet and the only enemy I see is the people coming up with this insanity.
JohnP
January 20, 2012 at 6:37pm
Now at least the legislators can concentrate on something a lot easier, like balancing the budget, heh. BTW, our national debt is officially in the triple digits (100% or greater) than the Gross Domestic Product as of Dec 24th, 2010. Happy Holidays..
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
tekknyne
January 21, 2012 at 11:30am
There's not enough money in circulation to pay back the government's current debts + interest. I wonder who is going to pay for that little conundrum?
imagonex
January 20, 2012 at 6:10pm
This wouldn't be happening if Stephen Colbert were president. Will Ferrell for vice-president! WE NEED MORE COW BELL!!
dgrmouse
January 20, 2012 at 9:23pm
You joke, but you're not too far off. A rigged election in Florida in 2000 is what got us here.
US_Ranger
January 21, 2012 at 11:06am
Classic response. A rigged 2000 election got us here? Why hasn't Obama reversed course then? Why is he continuing the exact same policies as Bush?
A rigged 30 years of crappy policy is what got us here.
warptek2010
January 20, 2012 at 11:59pm
Utter bullshit. Pal, you need to get a clue. Liberalism is what got us here.
Carlidan
January 21, 2012 at 7:25pm
Any proof of that? If I recall correctly, the past 100 years, only 4 democrat presidents got elected. Sure there were some years democrats had control of congress. But you know what the president has? It's a four letter word. V-E-T-O. It takes 2/3 to override a president's veto. I'm pretty sure all those years, democrats didn't have 2/3 of any houses all those years. So if the republican's thought democrats was pushing "liberaism", they could of stopped it all those years. So why didn't they?
warptek2010
January 23, 2012 at 12:41am
Again, get a clue... study some history at least. Before Clinton's 2nd term and the Republicans Contract with America the Democrats were running the show in both Houses for about 60 years... That would be since FDR's if you can't do the math.
Carlidan
January 23, 2012 at 8:14am
Get a clue? Again the president has the power of veto. To override a president's veto, you must have a 2/3 vote from the house. My question was if republican's fear liberalism so much, they had the power to still stop it. Plan and simple. I'm pretty sure if all republican's voted to to override a veto, they can.
warptek2010
January 23, 2012 at 12:43am
No, logic and critical thinking and not knee jerk, emotion based reaction like you're having. It's called studying history.
Carlidan
January 23, 2012 at 8:19am
Hmmmm..... you can study history all you want. It depends how you distort history.
Ghok
January 20, 2012 at 3:02pm
Dear MPAA,
Everyday more and more people realize that what you say is bullshit.
It's pretty fun to watch, actually.
warptek2010
January 21, 2012 at 12:03am
Funny you should say that actually. Because of this president and this congress, more and more Americans were made aware of the process that's SUPPOSED to take place. More people went and looked up what the U.S. constitution says and people are finding that their government is out of control and doing things they have no authority to do.
dgrmouse
January 21, 2012 at 9:14am
To blame the current administration for our ongoing loss of freedom is silly. We sold our rights under the guise of homeland security long before Obama, friend. We sold them cheaply.
Ghok
January 21, 2012 at 11:08am
That's not exactly what warptek said, though if that's what was meant... I wouldn't say it was incorrect either. These people were blind to it when it started getting really bad long before a black-guy/liberal/whatever-it-is-that pisses-people-off-about-him was the president. The rest of us already knew.
alexw1234
January 20, 2012 at 2:33pm
These people never represented us, they just went to bed with big media corps. Give it a few months, they will try again. There pockets are too deeply lined to quit.
win7fanboi
January 20, 2012 at 1:31pm
Hopefully now that more people are aware they will congregate every time something nasty like this is attempted again. I don't like that they shelved it, seems like they are trying to get everyone's guard down.
Btw, it's a win-win for senators : http://gizmodo.com/5877352/surprise-senators-with-huge-campaign-contributions-from-media-support-sopapipa
I am sure they will be compensated again for their renewed effort whenever they try to push this through again.
Thanks MPC and Brad for raising awareness.
mattman059
January 20, 2012 at 12:49pm
"As a consequence of failing to act, there will continue to be a safe haven for foreign thieves; American jobs will continue to be lost; and consumers will continue to be exposed to fraudulent and dangerous products peddled by foreign criminals."
All of these things can be dealt with by the American people by just educating themselves about malicious websites, the 'possible' dangers of torrenting (ie: make sure you get things from reputable sources), and just using plain common sense.
Havok
January 20, 2012 at 11:35am
Just like some people will play Chrono Trigger once a year, this will probably become a yearly or bi-yearly 'project'. Dredge it up, push it, rinse, repeat.
US_Ranger
January 20, 2012 at 12:03pm
This is the truth right here. Politicians might be greedy and evil opportunists but they aren't stupid. They know there is a good chance they'll lose their re-election if they are in a contested state and support SOPA/PIPA. Now they can just wait 6 months for the next version to come down the pipeline and vote on it while hoping it slips under the radar.
I'm guessing the next version will take place within 5 or 6 different bills. That way it's not an "in your face" approach to censorship but more of a long drawn out war of attrition.
Biceps
January 20, 2012 at 1:52pm
My Senator supported it and I will not vote for her again. I'm liberal, but I'd rather vote for a Tea-party nutbag than hand the reins back to her.
Brad Chacos
January 20, 2012 at 11:36am
De nada. Looking forward to the bills dying so I can get back to power supplies and graphics cards, though!
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