Forbes contributor John Gaudiosi writes:
Both SOPA and Protect IP attempt to combat online piracy by preventing American search engines like Google and Yahoo from directing users to sites distributing stolen content. Both bills also would enable people and companies to sue if their copyright was infringed. Obama has come out against both bills, which killed SOPA and puts pressure on senators come January 24th.
This isn't quite right on several levels. The bills wouldn't give copyright holders the capacity to sue - this is already the law of the land, for one thing. It would give content owners the ability to actually shut down websites that they believe violate their copyright.
The more troubling error in John's statement, however, is that Obama's statement "killed SOPA." This is simply not the case, even if it is some nice wishful thinking.
SOPA is very much alive, though it has been drastically slowed down. Minority Whip, Eric Cantor, has assured SOPA-opponent Rep. Darrell Issa that the bill won't move forward without consensus. Whatever that means, it surely does not mean that SOPA is dead.
I'm worried that this sentiment is widely shared by people who took heart at the president's statement. It was a comforting rumble from the White House, but not a bill-killer.
As Forbes cyber-security blogger-in-chief Andy Greenberg reports:
Texas representative Lamar Smith has vowed to pick up what’s left of the tattered bill he introduced last October and push forward a markup hearing on the legislation in February. “To enact legislation that protects consumers, businesses and jobs from foreign thieves who steal America’s intellectual property, we will continue to bring together industry representatives and Members to find ways to combat online piracy,” he wrote in a statement to reporters. “I am committed to continuing to work with my colleagues in the House and Senate to send a bipartisan bill to the White House that saves American jobs and protects intellectual property.”
Proponents of SOPA, which seeks to block access to foreign sites accused of violating copyright and any site that helps to access those blocked sites, have already agreed to remove a portion of the bill that would use the Domain Name System to disappear sites from the Internet. But the bill still contains a provision that allows Internet service providers to block access to foreign sites, as well as taking legal action against any site that offers circumvention tools, a vaguely worded provision that could cause problems for any site that allows user-generated content.
Andy continues:
Representative Smith railed against Wikipedia’s blackout plan in a separate statement: “It is ironic that a website dedicated to providing information is spreading misinformation about the Stop Online Piracy Act. The bill will not harm Wikipedia, domestic blogs or social networking sites,” he wrote. “This publicity stunt does a disservice to its users by promoting fear instead of facts. Perhaps during the blackout, Internet users can look elsewhere for an accurate definition of online piracy.”
The big tech companies and social media sites don't think SOPA is dead. Lamar Smith, the bill's architect, sure doesn't think that SOPA is dead. Far from killing the bill, the president's statement simply brought it to a temporary halt. For opponents of the legislation this is a victory, but not a total victory.
There's a great deal of work to be done and nobody appears to be backing down any time soon.
