A daily digest of IT news, curated from blogs, forums and news sites around the web each morning. We highlight the key commentary and demystify the real story.
The SOPA and PIPA bills appear to have lost critical political support after yesterday's blackout protests by Wikipedia, Google, et al. However, there's now a new bill, known as Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN). In IT Blogwatch, bloggers wonder if this one is just as one-sided, unconstitutional, and unworkable as the previous efforts.
[Updated with more comment, bile, and venom]
Your humble blogwatcher (@richi ) curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: Why you shoulodn't allocate memory until there's only x% free...
Grant Gross gets going:
Darrell Issa, a California Republican, and 24 co-sponsors introduced the [bill on] the same day many websites went dark in opposition to SOPA and [PIPA].
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[It] would allow copyright holders to file complaints about..foreign websites with the U.S. International Trade Commission, which would..decide whether U.S. payment processors and online advertising networks should..cut off funding.
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Opponents of SOPA and PIPA say the bills don't give..websites enough due process and could cut off legitimate free speech. .. [But] Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican and SOPA lead sponsor, said.."The OPEN Act makes the Internet even more open to foreign thieves."
Matt Flegenheimer adds:
24 hours after the Wikipedia blackout began..the site returned to normal. .. According to Wikipedia, more than 162 million people had seen the sites protest. .. More than 12,000 commented on a blog post..with a breathtaking majority supporting it.
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The site warned that SOPA and PIPA are not dead but merely waiting in the shadows.
Nate Anderson asks a rhetorical question:
Can we do anything meaningful about piracy without resorting to new private rights..or to DNS blocking? We can.
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Involve all stakeholders. .. The public has a serious stake in Internet issues and needs meaningful participation. .. SOPA and PIPA..[sprang] fully-formed from the brains of entertainment lobbyists..no way for a democracy to legislate on key Internet issues. .. Instead, we need to work on principles in public, then move towards legislation. .. [The] hearings on SOPA and PIPA have been a joke. .. We can do better. .. Let's hear from thoughtful people for a while and work to get it right.
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OPEN..still provides for "emergency" one-sided presentations. We'd like to see non-adversarial hearings reduced to an absolute minimum. .. The way forward is through consensus and targeted, modest measures..that keep piracy in proper perspective.
And Dan Seitz opines that the MPAA has "hit a new low in self-pity":
How does the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) feel about these protests? We wish we were joking when we say this:..They think its an abuse of power.
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[I]nforming citizens of the downsides of [SOPA/PIPA] does not make people corporate pawns. Now, the members of Congress you paid to write this bill..those would be corporate pawns!
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In other words, MPAA, you are..whining that other people are informing the American people of what youre trying to do. How..do you sleep at night? Do you even understand how sickening that is?
Meanwhile, Mike Masnick awards 1,000 internets:
Lots of folks in Congress have been speaking out..today -- and what's fascinating is how many of them are actually using key internet innovations to do so. .. But the..funniest response we've seen..comes from Rep. Bruce Braley from Iowa.
At least 18 senators have dropped their support for..PIPA [after the] online outrage-via-outage, seven of whom were former co-sponsors.
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Its unclear how much support fell off the SOPA bandwagon, but it doesnt look good..when House Speaker John Boehner says its pretty clear..there is a lack of consensus.
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[But] SOPA is not dead. .. Its like the Rasputin of bills. .. The latest word is that it will come back for mark-up in February. And a vote on PIPA..is not far off either. Its time to pay very close attention.
And Peter Judge tells his fellow Brits what they can do about it (err, not much):
[We] contacted both the UK Foreign Office and the Department for Culture..to ask if the UK government has any plans to object. .. We were told..that the UK does not interfere with legislation made by other countries.
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[T]hose outside the US [are] feeling powerless, as if dealing with a new Internet dictatorship.
