Headline RePLAY – 1.17.12

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).

*Source: eWeek.com

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.

*Source: Politico

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.

*Source: Kotaku