PROTECT IP and SOPA Stalled in Senate and House, For Now

Support for the antipiracy bill quickly eroded after Wikipedia, Craigslist, and thousands of other sites blacked out their homepages Wednesday in a coordinated protest of PROTECT IP and its companion bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) (CED Jan 19 p1). And a new source of opposition popped up -- Republican presidential candidates.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement Friday that it was the “right decision to reconsider fast-tracking” a bill that raised “serious legal, policy and operational concerns.” “The Majority Leader’s decision to set aside the bill will give Congress the opportunity to study and resolve the serious issues with this legislation and prevent a counterproductive rush toward flawed legislation.”

The author of PROTECT IP, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., bemoaned the leadership’s “knee-jerk reaction” while “more time will pass with jobs lost and economies hurt by foreign criminals who are stealing American intellectual property,” in a statement Friday. Leahy said he remains committed to addressing the problem of online piracy: “I hope other members of Congress won’t simply stand on hollow promises to find a way to eliminate online theft by foreign rogue websites, and will instead work with me to send a bill to the President’s desk this year.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, agreed to postpone Judiciary’s markup of SOPA “until there is wider agreement on a solution,” he said in a separate statement Friday. “I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.” House Judiciary’s SOPA markup was scheduled to resume in February after being postponed in December for the holiday recess (CED Dec 19 p4).

Opponents on House Judiciary welcomed the news and promoted the OPEN Act, HR-3782, as a viable solution to the problem of online piracy. One author of the OPEN Act, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said in a statement Friday that the battle against PROTECT IP and SOPA is “not over yet.” “It is clear that Congress needs to have more discussion and education about the workings of the Internet before it moves forward on sweeping legislation to address intellectual property theft on the Internet.”

Issa promoted the OPEN Act as a means to combat piracy without stifling innovation or freedom of speech. The legislation would authorize the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), rather than the Department of Justice, to open investigations into foreign infringing websites. The House OPEN Act has 25 cosponsors, which is one more than SOPA after seven of its cosponsors withdrew their support this week. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., introduced the Senate companion bill to OPEN, S-2029, in December, but it only has two cosponsors -- Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan.

One of the few Web entrepreneurs in Congress, Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., also promoted the OPEN Act in a statement Friday. “The American people deserve the credit for telling Congress in no uncertain terms that SOPA and [PROTECT IP] are anathema to the concept of an open Internet where commerce and ideas can flourish,” he said. “I am hopeful that Republicans and Democrats can work together to coalesce around a better solution to foreign piracy -- the OPEN Act.” Polis is the founder of Internet access provider American Information Systems, an online greeting card site called bluemountainarts.com, and an online florist company called ProFlowers.

Chairman Smith has loudly objected to the OPEN Act, which he said “expands government ... and may make the problem worse” by creating a “safe harbor for foreign criminals” who infringe American IP. During a press briefing Friday, Wyden called Smith’s opposition to OPEN a “bizarre kind of response to an opportunity for people in our country who feel that they are being victimized by a foreign rogue website to promptly, expeditiously get remedy from a body who has expertise in trade issues. The International Trade Commission is there to deal with these issues now. So if you are an American who feels you are getting ripped off, this would be a forum where you could get an expeditious and responsive answer to your concerns. And it is an opportunity to protect our businesses and promote international trade and commerce in the digital space.”

The bills drew criticism from the four remaining Republican presidential hopefuls at Thursday night’s CNN debate, prodded by a question from a Twitter user. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich got applause for saying “you're asking a conservative about the economic interests of Hollywood” and that the bills are favored by “many left-wing people,” according to CNN’s transcript (http://xrl.us/bmpc3t). “Virtually everyone who is technologically advanced ... say[s] this is going to totally mess up the Internet,” and it’s wrong to have the government “preemptively ... censoring the Internet on behalf of giant corporations,” he said. The bills are “far too intrusive, far too expensive,” former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said: Lawmakers should “find a way to very narrowly, through our current laws,” target offshore pirate sites.

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, got applause for noting he was the first Republican to sign on “with a host of Democrats” against SOPA, which showed he’s qualified to “look at civil liberties and work with coalitions and bring people together.” While the House and Senate bills won’t pass, “watch out for the next one,” he warned. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum offered the mildest criticism of the Republican contenders, saying the legislation “goes too far. But I will not agree with everybody up here that there isn’t something that can and should be done” to protect IP rights: “The idea that, you know, anything goes on the Internet, where did that come from? Where in America does it say that anything goes?”