House Judiciary SOPA Debate Crawls On to Day Two

By our deadline Thursday, committee members had voted on fewer than 10 amendments to Smith’s manager’s amendment to the bill, which was introduced Monday to cheers from the content industry and jeers from technology and Internet groups. The manager’s amendment specifies that the bill will only apply to foreign rogue sites, removes language requiring domain redirection to those who try to access unlawful sites, prevents the attorney general from requiring ISPs to block subdomains and narrows several other definitions of the bill. By our deadline there were more than 50 amendments still pending.

An amendment proposed by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., failed to strike a provision that would block Americans’ access to certain foreign-based websites and require Internet search engines to remove hyperlinks. The amendment sparked a heated debate over what Issa called “one of the most onerous elements” of the bill and resulted in fingerpointing over which members actually understood the security implications of DNS blocking. Smith objected to the amendment, saying it was “essential that DNS blocking remain” in the bill to curb online IP theft.

The ACLU noted that none of the amendments considered by the committee Thursday would narrow the scope by which trademark holders can seek a court order against allegedly infringing foreign websites. “There are good things, like the Issa 072 [amendment], which would narrow the threat to non-infringing content,” said Michael Macleod, chief of staff for the ACLU’s Washington office. “But nothing goes directly at the issue of reducing the threat posed by overly broad court orders that can be relied upon to take down non-infringing content.”

Issa repeatedly urged delay and suggested that the committee hold a subsequent hearing with technical experts to evaluate Smith’s proposed amendment. “I believe we need to slow down,” said Issa. “We haven’t heard from the scientists … We haven’t done our due diligence.” Issa is a sponsor of an alternative draft proposal, the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN) Act, which would curb the unauthorized sale of digital goods by increasing International Trade Commission authority over anti-piracy enforcement(CED Dec 9 p2).

"Some major defects remain,” said House Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chairman Dan Lungren, R-Calif., despite the efforts of Smith to address concerns of the technology community. Specifically Lungren said the bill’s provision to enable DNS blocking of foreign “rogue” websites would “actually have an adverse impact on our ability to protect the Internet from the cyberattacks that have taken place and continue to take place.” The legislation would “be destructive of the effort we have attempted to create in terms of cybersecurity protection,” Lungren said.

Lungren said he was disappointed that no technical experts were given the opportunity to weigh in at the committee’s November hearing on the legislation. “We are being asked to pass fundamentally important and changing legislation with respect to the operation of important parts of the Internet without the information base that I think we need.”

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., also expressed concern that the legislation could harm the nation’s national security efforts. “I don’t think we should be doing anything here that could infringe on national security,” said Sensenbrenner, who chairs Judiciary’s Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said the bill “isn’t ready for prime time” and also questioned why the chairman had not asked technical experts to provide testimony about technological implications of the legislation. “Basically we are going to do surgery on the Internet and we haven’t had a doctor tell us how to change these organs,” Chaffetz said. “Maybe we ought to ask some nerds what this really does … let’s bring the nerds in and do this right.”

"I don’t think we can resolve this with a bunch of experts,” said Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., who acknowledged that he was “not a nerd.” “We have set up a careful framework where nothing can happen without a judicial intervention.” Watt urged committee members to move forward and pass IP theft laws that “parallel in the virtual world what we do in the real world.”

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., objected to the pace at which the manager’s amendment to the bill was introduced. “This is being jammed through in two months’ time,” she said. “We've had one hearing and at that hearing only one witness who managed to testify in opposition to the legislation.” Lofgren added that if this bill passes it will “aid the push for more direct government control” of the Internet and would raise major cybersecurity and First Amendment issues. “We do need copyright enforcement but there is a better way to do it,” she said.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, sought an apology from Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who commented on the hearing on Twitter. King was not present at the hearing when he tweeted, “We are debating the Stop Online Piracy Act and Sheila Jackson has so bored me that I'm killing time by surfing the Internet.” Lee called King’s comments “offensive” and Sensenbrenner urged the word “offensive” to be removed from the record. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, joined the chorus suggesting that more time for discussion is needed before passing the bill: “We all want a solution,” but “it’s not always a bad idea to take a little more time.”