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发帖数: 2946 | 1 http://news.yahoo.com/protest-congress-puts-off-movie-piracy-bi
WASHINGTON (AP) — Caving to a massive campaign by Internet services and
their millions of users, Congress indefinitely postponed legislation Friday
to stop online piracy of movies and music costing U.S. companies billions of
dollars every year. Critics said the bills would result in censorship and
stifle Internet innovation.
The demise, at least for the time being, of the anti-piracy bills was a
clear victory for Silicon Valley over Hollywood, which has campaigned for a
tougher response to online piracy. The legislation also would cover the
counterfeiting of drugs and car parts.
Congress' qualms underscored how Internet users can use their collective
might to block those who want to change the system.
The battle over the future of the Internet also played out on a different
front Thursday when a loose affiliation of hackers known as "Anonymous" shut
down Justice Department websites for several hours and hacked the site of
the Motion Picture Association of America after federal officials issued an
indictment against Megaupload.com, one of the world's biggest file-sharing
sites.
The site of the Hong Kong-based company was shut down, and the founder and
three employees were arrested in New Zealand on U.S. accusations that they
facilitated millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content,
costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue. New
Zealand police raided homes and businesses linked to the founder, Kim Dotcom
, on Friday and seized guns, millions of dollars and nearly $5 million in
luxury cars, officials there said.
In the U.S., momentum against the Senate's Protect Intellectual Property Act
and the House's Stop Online Piracy Act, known popularly as PIPA and SOPA,
grew quickly on Wednesday when the online encyclopedia Wikipedia and other
Web giants staged a one-day blackout and Google organized a petition drive
that attracted more than 7 million participants.
That day alone, at least six senators who had co-sponsored the Senate
legislation reversed their positions. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, in
statements at the time and again on Friday, stressed that more consensus-
building was needed before the legislation would be ready for a vote.
On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he was postponing
a test vote set for Tuesday "in light of recent events." House Judiciary
Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, followed suit, saying consideration
of a similar House bill would be postponed "until there is wider agreement
on a solution."
With opposition mounting, it was unlikely that Reid would have received the
60 votes needed to advance the legislation to the Senate floor.
The two bills would allow the Justice Department, and copyright holders, to
seek court orders against foreign websites accused of copyright infringement
. The legislation would bar online advertising networks and payment
facilitators such as credit card companies from doing business with an
alleged violator. They also would forbid search engines from linking to such
sites.
The chief Senate sponsor, Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.,
cited estimates that copyright piracy costs the American economy more than
$50 billion annually and that global sales of counterfeit goods via the
Internet reached $135 billion in 2010. He and Smith insist that their bills
target only foreign criminals and that there is nothing in them to require
websites, Internet service providers, search engines or others to monitor
their networks.
That didn't satisfy critics who said the legislation could force Internet
companies to pre-screen user comments or videos, burden new and smaller
websites with huge litigation costs and impede new investments.
The White House, while not taking a specific stand on the bills, last week
said it would "not support any legislation that reduces freedom of
expression ... or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet." On
Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said online piracy is an issue that
has to be addressed, "but everybody has to be in on it for it to work and
get through Congress."
The scuttling, for now, of PIPA and SOPA frustrates what might have been one
of the few opportunities to move significant legislation in an election
year where the two parties have little motivation to cooperate.
Until recently "you would have thought this bill was teed up," with backing
from key Senate leaders and support from powerful interest groups, said Sen.
Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who cosponsored the original bill but quickly dropped
his backing on the grounds the bill could undermine innovation and Internet
freedom.
Moran said the "uprising" of so many people with similar concerns was a "
major turnaround, and in my experience it is something that has happened
very rarely."
Moran said PIPA and SOPA now have "such a black eye" that it will be
difficult to amend them. Reid, however, said that there had been progress in
recent talks among the various stakeholders and "there is no reason that
the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved."
Jeff Chester, executive director for the Center for Digital Democracy, a
consumer protection and privacy advocacy group, said Google and Facebook and
their supporters "have delivered a powerful blow to the Hollywood lobby."
He predicted a compromise that doesn't include what many see as overreaching
provisions in the current legislation.
"It's been framed as an Internet freedom issue, but at the end of the day it
will be decided on the narrow interests of the old and new media companies,
" he said. The big questions involve who should or shouldn't pay — or be
paid — for Internet content.
Leahy said he respected Reid's decision to postpone the vote but lamented
the Senate's unwillingness to debate his bill.
"The day will come when the senators who forced this move will look back and
realize they made a knee-jerk reaction to a monumental problem," Leahy said
. Criminals in China, Russia and other countries "who do nothing but peddle
in counterfeit products and stolen American content are smugly watching how
the United States Senate decided" it was not worth taking up the bill, he
said.
In the House, Smith said he had "heard from the critics" and resolved that
it was "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." Smith had planned on holding further committee votes on his bill
next month.
The bill's opponents were relieved it was put on hold.
Markham Erickson, executive director of NetCoalition, commended Congress for
"recognizing the serious collateral damage this bill could inflict on the
Internet."
The group represents Internet and technology companies including Google,
Yahoo and Amazon.com. Erickson said they would work with Congress "to
address the problem of piracy without compromising innovation and free
expression."
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who has joined Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and
Moran in proposing an alternative anti-piracy bill, credited opponents with
forcing lawmakers "to back away from an effort to ram through controversial
legislation."
But the CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, former Connecticut
Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, warned, "As a consequence of failing to act,
there will continue to be a safe haven for foreign thieves." The MPAA, which
represents such companies as Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Twentieth
Century Fox Film Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., is a
leading advocate for the anti-piracy legislation. | l******t
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