Harry Reid Says He's Concerned PIPA Will Break The Internet, But We Must Move Forward With It, Because Of 'Jobs'

from the say-what-now? dept

In a short appearance on Meet the Press on Sunday, Senate leader Harry Reid continued to insist that the Senate intended to move forward with PIPA, despite the widespread concerns, despite the White House's statement against the bill, and despite multiple Senators -- including bill co-sponsors -- asking him to hold off putting the bill to a vote. What's stunning is how misleading Senator Reid is being here. First, he claims that the bill is about "jobs," despite a total lack of evidence that that's true. In fact, as has been noted plenty of times here, the part of the economy that is creating jobs -- the startup/tech sector -- is the one who gets burdened by this bill. David Gregory then responds by pointing out that people keep pointing out to him online that this bill isn't really about jobs, and will harm the internet. Reid then tries to pretend that this is a new revelation. He notes that it was "reported out of the committee unanimously" back in May. That's true, but that was back before most people understood the bill, or the internet had spoken out. Even then, many of us were quite clear in speaking out about why this bill was a problem. But Harry Reid pretends that it's "just in the last few weeks" that anyone has raised concerns." That's flat out ridiculous.

Next he claims that he's working with Senator Feinstein on this, since she's "in the middle" of the issue, representing both Northern and Southern California, where the issue is loudest. This would be the same Senator Feinstein who is so tone deaf to what's happening in her own state, that just weeks ago she insisted that she didn't know the tech industry was upset about the bill.

But the really stunning part? After these bizarre claims, he says, of those who have complained about the bill:

"I think they're right. I think it could create some problems. That's why I've spoken Senator Leahy, the Chairman of the Committee. I've written a letter to the ranking member Senator Grassley, saying that some issues have come up. I think this needs to be a winner for everyone -- not just for the content people.... so we need to work on this."

But then he still insists that they're going forward with the bill! He notes that he's expecting a "manager's amendment" from Leahy -- but Leahy has already said that the manager's amendment is just going to delay the implementation of the DNS issues. If Senator Reid really wants to make sure the bill is a "winner for everyone" then shouldn't we take some time to make sure that everyone's happy? It's doubly concerning that he appears to think these issues "just came up" in the past few weeks. That shows that he's totally and completely out of touch on the many months that people were speaking out against the problems of this bill. If anything that's even more reason to delay things, since Reid himself is admitting he's totally ignorant of the many, many, many problems that people have been discussing for months now.

It's such a politician's response: he pretends that he's in agreement with the concerns of everyone... but then immediately admits he's ignoring those concerns and pushing forward with a bad bill, which he clearly never understood, and which it appears he just found out there was criticism around, despite the fact it's been going on for months. Everything in this statement points to reasons not to vote on the bill on the 24th, and yet he wants to move forward with it. It's just stunning.

Filed Under: concerns, harry reid, interent, jobs, pipa, protect ip, senate, sopa

SOPA/PIPA Supporters Pretend White House Statement Means We Can Rush Through SOPA/PIPA

from the wow,-that's-chutzpah dept

Following the White House's surprise move to effectively tell SOPA/PIPA supporters to go back to the drawing board and come back with bills that don't censor the internet, don't break basic online security tools and that don't create unjustified litigation -- SOPA and PIPA supporters are going full press spin to try to pretend this is "good news." I'm not joking. The MPAA came out with a pretty laughable statement that appears to suggest that the White House's statement means it's time to "stop the obstruction" and just pass the bills:

So now it is time to stop the obstruction and move forward on legislation.

Our industry not only fully supports free expression, our livelihood is built upon a vibrant First Amendment - it is the foundation of our industry and we would never support any legislation that would limit this fundamental American right. As had been made clear throughout the legislative consideration of SOPA and the PROTECT-IP Act, neither of these bills implicate free expression but focus solely on illegal conduct, which is not free speech. We agree with Secretary Clinton's recent statement that "There is no contradiction between intellectual property rights protection and enforcement and ensuring freedom of expression on the Internet."

Similarly, the MPAA, together with the RIAA and the US Chamber of Commerce, stunningly claimed that the White House's statement:

"clears the way for action on these important bills."

Talk about being in denial. This is laughable in a variety of ways. First, what the MPAA calls "obstruction" was actually the voicing of significant concerns that echo exactly what the White House claimed. For example, many of us spoke about the DNS provisions, and the White House clearly states: "Our analysis of the DNS filtering provisions in some proposed legislation suggests that they pose a real risk to cybersecurity and yet leave contraband goods and services accessible online." Yes, both Leahy and Smith have promised to delay (not completely remove) the implementation of those provisions, but that would not have happened if so many people hadn't spoken out vocally about those provisions.

That's not obstruction. Those were legitimate concerns -- which the MPAA fought, tooth and nail, even to the point of denying that DNS blocking was any problem at all. And the concerns that remain are legitimate as well. It's insulting, and all too indicative of how the MPAA has managed the push for this legislation, that its response to the White House telling them to go back to the drawing board and to "work together with all sides," is to respond by saying, "just pass the bill already!"

Perhaps not too surprisingly -- since he's basically been the MPAA's mouthpiece in Congress on this bill -- Rep. Lamar Smith echoed the same claims when asked about the White House's statements:

"I welcome today's announcement that the White House will support legislation to combat online piracy that protects free speech, the Internet and America's intellectual property," Smith said in a statement. "That's precisely what the Stop Online Piracy Act does."

No, actually, it's not. The current bill has tons of problems -- even if we leave aside the DNS provisions. It is very much likely to censor legitimate sites -- as pointed out by over a hundred legal scholars -- and it has a private right of action that is likely to lead to unnecessary litigation. These are exactly the things the White House just told Smith to fix. And his response is to ignore them? Stunning. But... this is Lamar Smith, who still can't hear any criticism of his bill. Perhaps he just thinks the White House wants to "pirate" more things.

Filed Under: copyright, pipa, protect ip, sopa, white house
Companies: mpaa, riaa, us chamber of commerce

White House Comes Out Against The Approach In SOPA/PIPA In Response To Online Petition

from the boom dept

Remember that big first petition to the White House against SOPA? As you may recall, that got enough signatures that it required a response from the White House... and that response has come out. It rejects the approaches found in both SOPA and PIPA. They say that "online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response" but that there are many things they will not support.

They will not support a bill that has the potential to censor lawful activity or inhibit innovation:

To minimize this risk, new legislation must be narrowly targeted only at sites beyond the reach of current U.S. law, cover activity clearly prohibited under existing U.S. laws, and be effectively tailored, with strong due process and focused on criminal activity. Any provision covering Internet intermediaries such as online advertising networks, payment processors, or search engines must be transparent and designed to prevent overly broad private rights of action that could encourage unjustified litigation that could discourage startup businesses and innovative firms from growing.

They flat out reject anything that involves DNS blocking:

We must avoid creating new cybersecurity risks or disrupting the underlying architecture of the Internet. Proposed laws must not tamper with the technical architecture of the Internet through manipulation of the Domain Name System (DNS), a foundation of Internet security. Our analysis of the DNS filtering provisions in some proposed legislation suggests that they pose a real risk to cybersecurity and yet leave contraband goods and services accessible online. We must avoid legislation that drives users to dangerous, unreliable DNS servers and puts next-generation security policies, such as the deployment of DNSSEC, at risk.

They do still say that new legislation is needed, but they want something where every stakeholder is actually involved:

So, rather than just look at how legislation can be stopped, ask yourself: Where do we go from here? Don’t limit your opinion to what’s the wrong thing to do, ask yourself what’s right. Already, many of members of Congress are asking for public input around the issue. We are paying close attention to those opportunities, as well as to public input to the Administration. The organizer of this petition and a random sample of the signers will be invited to a conference call to discuss this issue further with Administration officials and soon after that, we will host an online event to get more input and answer your questions. Details on that will follow in the coming days.

Washington needs to hear your best ideas about how to clamp down on rogue websites and other criminals who make money off the creative efforts of American artists and rights holders. We should all be committed to working with all interested constituencies to develop new legal tools to protect global intellectual property rights without jeopardizing the openness of the Internet. Our hope is that you will bring enthusiasm and know-how to this important challenge.

Moving forward, we will continue to work with Congress on a bipartisan basis on legislation that provides new tools needed in the global fight against piracy and counterfeiting, while vigorously defending an open Internet based on the values of free expression, privacy, security and innovation. Again, thank you for taking the time to participate in this important process. We hope you’ll continue to be part of it.

Make no mistake about this: this is the White House asking for a hard reset of SOPA/PIPA and saying start again from scratch. This is an astounding turn of events, and a much stronger statement from the White House than anyone honestly expected. This is almost entirely because of the outcry that came out of the internet over the last few months. Without that, it is unlikely that the White House ever would have come out with such a strong position that questions the key provisions of these bills.

It will be important to continue to be engaged and to make sure that what happens next really is reasonable. Let's hope that Congress actually recognizes the importance of what the White House is saying, and that any future process really is open. Congress has a way of ignoring things like this, and until Harry Reid agrees to put PIPA on the shelf and take part in this hard reset, people need to keep the pressure on the Senate. But, in the short term, this is a rather historic moment, in that it is a case where a loud public outcry really has had a major impact on this process. When the Senate introduced PIPA early last year, it was seen as almost assured that it would pass in something close to its initial form. Now that seems impossible.

Filed Under: aneesh chopra, censorship, dns blocking, free speech, howard schmidt, pipa, protect ip, sopa, victoria espinel, white house

SOPA Delayed; Cantor Promises It Won't Be Brought To The Floor Until 'Issues Are Addressed'

from the holding-fire dept

Some late breaking news here: following Lamar Smith's announcement that the new manager's amendment for SOPA will remove DNS blocking (to be added back at a later date after it's been "studied"), Rep. Issa has announced that he will now postpone the "nerd" hearing that he was holding in the House Oversight Committee, which was originally scheduled for Wednesday. The key reason? Majority Leader Eric Cantor has promised him that he will not bring the bill to the floor unless there's real consensus on the bill. That's big news -- though, as Issa notes in his statement, it's worrisome that Senator Reid still seems to want to move forward with PIPA:

"While I remain concerned about Senate action on the Protect IP Act, I am confident that flawed legislation will not be taken up by this House. Majority Leader Cantor has assured me that we will continue to work to address outstanding concerns and work to build consensus prior to any anti-piracy legislation coming before the House for a vote,” said Chairman Issa. “The voice of the Internet community has been heard. Much more education for Members of Congress about the workings of the Internet is essential if anti-piracy legislation is to be workable and achieve broad appeal.”

"Earlier tonight, Chairman Smith announced that he will remove the DNS blocking provision from his legislation. Although SOPA, despite the removal of this provision, is still a fundamentally flawed bill, I have decided that postponing the scheduled hearing on DNS blocking with technical experts is the best course of action at this time. Right now, the focus of protecting the Internet needs to be on the Senate where Majority Leader Reid has announced his intention to try to move similar legislation in less than two weeks."

Indeed. It is still important that Congress hears from "the nerds" and plenty of other experts concerning the implications of these attempts to regulate the internet, but if SOPA is not going to be rushed to the floor, such hearings and education can (and should) happen in due time, rather than rushing to get them in, just as Congress comes back into session. There are more important things for Congress to focus on.

Filed Under: darrell isa, delayed, dns, eric cantor, harry reid, hearings, lamar smith, pipa, protect ip, sopa

Raging Grannies Come Out Against SOPA/PIPA

from the don't-upset-your-grandmother dept

Even a group of (very politically active) grandmothers have come out against SOPA/PIPA. They note that it's rare that they agree with internet companies like Google & Facebook (they've protested both companies in the past), but that this is a very important issue to them:

The language in both of these bills is written with a very broad paintbrush. Their passage would have a huge impact on the work of human rights advocates who speak out against injustice on sites that could easily be labelled “rogue” websites. It’s a slippery slope when censorship reigns.

The indymedia network that thrives on open publishing (and our favorite www.indybay.org here in the San Francisco Bay Area) would be subject to censorship, defeating the very purpose of its existence. Similar platforms created to provide anonymity to whistleblowers could become major casualties of these bills.

All to save Hollywood’s bottom line?

They specifically call out California's two Senators for supporting such bad legislation. Either way, at this point, it's getting tougher and tougher to find anyone who actually supports these bills.

Filed Under: barbara boxer, dianne feinstein, grandmothers, internet, pipa, protect ip, raging grannies, sopa

PIPA's Own Sponsors Backing Off Bill; Ask Senate To Hold Off On Voting [Updated!]

from the wow dept

It looks like the internet uprising really is having an impact. Senator Ben Cardin -- a co-sponsor of PIPA -- has put out a press release saying that he won't vote for the bill as written today, after hearing from many constituents. Oddly, he says he will remain a co-sponsor of the bill, but wants to amend the bill to take into account the concerns he's hearing.

Similarly, six other Senators, including two co-sponsors -- Senators Orrin Hatch, Chuck Grassley (the two co-sponsors) along with John Cornyn, Jeff Sessions, Mike Lee and Tom Coburn -- have asked Harry Reid not to bring the cloture vote he's promised to bring on the 24th. In other words, as many of us have been asking: don't rush this. This is huge news. With Senators -- including three co-sponsors -- coming out so forcefully to Harry Reid that this bill needs more time, Reid is much more likely to delay the cloture vote, and to leave PIPA aside for other business for the time being. Either way, the letter (embedded below) makes it clear that more debate on the issues in the bill were promised and never held. And, they note, that they're hearing more and more and more about the problems in the bill, and believe they should be discussed openly, before anyone is voting on cloture or on the bill itself.

All of this, by the way, is because tons of you (tons!) have stepped up and reached out to your Reps. and Senators and let them know that these bills are unacceptable. Let's see if Harry Reid, Patrick Leahy and Lamar Smith finally admit that they, too, can hear you.

Update: Harry Reid apparently cannot hear you. He has come out with a statement saying that the cloture vote will continue on January 24th, despite the concerns of so many Senators (even co-sponsors of the bill) because it's "too important to delay." No. He's wrong. What's too important to delay is a real careful look at the impact of such a bill.

Update 2: More and more Senators appear to be distancing themselves from the bill. The latest is Senator Pat Toomey who makes it clear he does not like any bill that involves the government being able to order blocks of links to certain websites -- something he calls "pretty disturbing."

Filed Under: ben cardin, chuck grassley, delay, harry reid, jeff sessions, john cornyn, mike lee, orrin hatch, pipa, protect ip, tom coburn

Lamar Smith Follows Leahy's Steps With Plans To Delay DNS Implementation In SOPA

from the but-of-course dept

Well this is hardly a surprise given the trial balloons floated on Wednesday and Senator Leahy's announcement yesterday, but Rep. Lamar Smith has now said that, like Leahy, he wants to delay the implementation of DNS blocking within SOPA until it's been "studied." According to a press release:

"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. We will continue to look for ways to ensure that foreign websites cannot sell and distribute illegal content to U.S. consumers."

Once again... the devil is very much in the details. And, to be honest, Smith technically "removed DNS blocking" from SOPA already. It no longer requires DNS blocking, but merely "reasonable measures" to block access to sites. So, it's not even entirely clear what he means here. Does he mean he'll remove site blocking? Or is he really leaving the document alone since it doesn't have DNS? Either way, it seems clear that the real plan here is to try to delay the controversial part until it's been "studied" and then implement it later...

Filed Under: copyright, dns, lamar smith, patrick leahy, pipa, protect ip, sopa

Jimmy Wales In Favor Of Wikipedia Blackout: Community Must Decide

from the speak-up dept

While there have been some previous discussions about whether or not Wikipedia would black out its site to protest SOPA/PIPA -- and the community's consensus was to do so -- it appeared that they had agreed that the trigger for a black out would be on the passing of the bill. That's a little late. However, now, with Reddit's plan to black out its site next Wednesday being joined by lots of other sites, some have been demanding that Wikipedia join them. Jimmy Wales has now spoken out saying he supports a blackout on Wednesday with Reddit, but would like the community to come to agreement first:

I'm all in favor of it, and I think it would be great if we could act quickly to coordinate with Reddit. I'd like to talk to our government affairs advisor to see if they agree on this as useful timing, but assuming that's a greenlight, I think that matching what Reddit does (but in our own way of course) per the emerging consensus on how to do it, is a good idea. But that means we need to move forward quickly on a concrete proposal and vote - we don't have the luxury of time that we usually have, in terms of negotiating with each other for weeks about what's exactly the best possible thing to do. As I understand it, the Foundation is talking to people about how we can geolocate and guide people to their Congressperson, etc. Geoff will know about that. Our task is to decide to do it with a thumbs up / thumbs down vote.

So, speak up, Wikipedians...

Filed Under: blackout, censorship, copyright, jimmy wales, pipa, protect ip, sopa, wikpedia
Companies: wikipedia

US Can Extradite UK Student For Copyright Infringement, Despite Site Being Legal In The UK

from the scary-scary-stuff dept

Want to understand just how insane things may get under SOPA/PIPA? Just take a look at what's already happening under today's laws. Back in 2010, one of the first websites that Homeland Security's ICE (Immigrations & Customs Enforcement) group seized was TVShack.net. TVShack was a site that collected links to TV shows. Certainly, many of those shows were likely to be infringing -- but TVShack did not host the content at all, it merely linked to it. Richard O'Dwyer, the guy who ran the site, was a student building an interesting project over in the UK. However, the US Department of Justice decided that he was not only a hardened criminal, but one who needed to be tried on US soil. Thus, it began extradition procedures. Even worse, nearly identical sites in the UK had already been found legal multiple times -- with the court noting that having links to some infringing content was certainly not criminal copyright infringement. That makes things even more ridiculous, because extradition is only supposed to be allowed for activities that are criminal in both the US and the UK.

But, seriously, think about how insane this is. With all the problems in the world, the US was spending time trying to extradite a UK student to the US, because he set up a site that had links to some infringing material. Is this really the best use of US law enforcement's time?

O'Dwyer has been fighting the extradition attempt... but today, unfortunately, a UK judge ruled against him.

District Judge Purdy said in his ruling: "There are said to be direct consequences of criminal activity by Richard O'Dwyer in the USA albeit by him never leaving the north of England.

"Such a state of affairs does not demand a trial here if the competent UK authorities decline to act and does, in my judgment, permit one in the USA."

He added: "I reject all challenges advanced to this request. No bars or other challenge being raised or found, I send the case to the Secretary of State."

O'Dwyer can and almost certainly will appeal this decision. But this is just ridiculous. And this is under existing laws. Just think what happens under SOPA/PIPA -- which are even more targeted at foreign sites. Do we really want the US government going around the world, dragging kids from their homes and taking them back to the US to throw them in jail... because they set up a web page with some links on it?

Filed Under: copyright, doj, extradition, ice, jurisdiction, pipa, protect ip, richard o'dwyer, sopa, uk, us
Companies: tv-links, tvshack

Don't Be Fooled: Leahy Is NOT Removing DNS Blocking Provisions, Merely Delaying Them

from the bad-reporting dept

We've already written about Senator Leahy's decision to delay the implementation of DNS blocking in PIPA. Unfortunately, despite the clear words in the announcement, it appears that Leahy's staff is going around suggesting to the press that this means he's dropping DNS. Thus you get reports in Wired and in ReadWriteWeb saying that Leahy is offering to remove the DNS blocking provisions. That's exactly what Leahy's staff would like people to believe, in the hopes that this makes the bill palatable. First, it wouldn't actually make the bill palatable, but it's important to read what Leahy actually said:

As I prepare a managers' amendment to be considered during the floor debate, I will therefore propose that the positive and negative effects of this provision be studied before implemented...

That is NOT removing the DNS blocking provisions. It is merely delaying them.

Furthermore, since the DNS blocking was such a key component of the bill and, at the very last minute, Leahy is suddenly claiming that we can all ignore that section for the time being, isn't that reason enough to stop and wait, rather than rushing this bill forward? Leahy is admitting that he did not and still does not understand a key provision in his bill. Do we really think that's the only provision he did not understand? Shouldn't this, alone, be evidence that this bill needs to be rethought entirely? This isn't a reason to move forward. It's the opposite. It's a reason to put this bill aside and spend some time actually understanding the issues at play.

Filed Under: dns, dns blocking, dnssec, pat leahy, pipa, protect ip, sopa