Today on
Headline RePLAY: It’s all about SOPA and how the DNS blocking provision got
removed, the bill becoming a political liability for supporters and how much
the gaming industry spent on pushing PIPA, the Senate equivalent of SOPA.
House Judiciary
Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the author of the Stop Online Piracy
act, removed a key provision last week, which if passed, would’ve allowed copyright
holders to force ISPs to block an offending website’s DNS record and thus thwarting user
access.
“After
consultation with industry groups across the country, I feel we should remove
Domain Name System-blocking from the Stop Online Piracy Act so that the
Committee can further examine the issues surrounding this provision,” Smith
said in the statement.
However, even
with the DNS blocking removed, SOPA remains armed and dangerous— the bill still
can grant right owners to cutoff revenue towards alleged sites, effectively besieging
them. And the component lives on in the bill’s Senate equivalent: the Protect IP
Act (PIPA).
Opposition
of SOPA is making itself known on capitol hill as backers are experiencing the fury
of the internet.
Politico
stipulates that “it’s a stretch to think SOPA will cost any of the longtime
incumbents backing the bill their seats” but it could become a “real factor” in
some races, like in the case of House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), one
of SOPA’s co-sponsors.
Ryan is now
facing the weight of Reddit’s online campaign dubbed “Operation Pull Ryan” and
his Democratic challenger, Rob Zerban, that’s exploiting the uproar. Zebran
attacked the bill in an interview on Reddit and collected $15,000 in campaign
donations, according to his campaign manager, Lisa Tanner.
In
response, Ryan released a statement opposing SOPA in “no uncertain terms.” Ryan
noted while the bill “attempts to address a legitimate problem” it would open
the door to “undue regulation, censorship and legal abuse.”
Conversely,
co-sponsor Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) stood her ground despite criticisms
leveled against her. “Critics of SOPA can’t deny the undisputed fact that
piracy hurts America,” said Blackburn in a statement. “The fact is SOPA only
applies to dedicated foreign rogue sites that are harming American consumers
and created.”
Recently, even
GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum were asked to weigh
in on the issue.
Politicians
swayed by lobbyists? Say it ain’t so! In an unveiling that won’t surprise
anyone, Kotaku reports that the ESA spent over $1,000,000 to lobby for the Protect
IP Act.
Kotaku
points out records for the second and third quarters show that the ESA spent
more than $1,000,000 lobbying politicians every three months and paid two firms
$190,000 combined about PIPA and other issues.
And in
order to influence how politicians crafted the Protect IP Act, the ESA paid the
Smith-Free Group $60,000 between April 1 and June 30 for “discussions relating
to online infringements of intellectual property” in addition to non-PIPA/SOPA
causes.
Additionally,
Kotaku reports that the ESA paid the Franklin Square Group $40,000 in the
spring and another $40,000 in the summer to lobby for PIPA and an array of
other causes.
