SOPA Officially Shelved; PIPA Still Being Legislated

We may have won the battle against SOPA, but the war against Internet censorship is far from over.

UPDATE: SOPA is not actually off the table, this is a product of misinformation being thrown around to disillusion and confuse the public. It has merely been postponed until February.

When Obama announced that his administration would not support SOPA, support for the bill naturally waned, but in a surprise move, SOPA was suspended indefinitely earlier today by Representative Eric Cantor(R-VA).

Now take a minute, relax, and pat those in opposition on the back.

But celebration should only be momentary, as the legislative ‘war on piracy’ is far from over. While SOPA is officially gone, PIPA (Protect IP Act), its awkward red-headed stepsister of a bill is still alive and kicking, with legislation on the bill kicking up substantially. This is an old tactic, and is what is known as a door in the face technique, meaning that while people are celebrating the door slammed on SOPA, Congress will attempt to subtly legislate PIPA, as perception in the midst of celebration will be dulled.

Luckily, Congress has been called out by Reddit, Wikipedia and other tech companies, who will still go ahead as planned with tomorrow’s SOPA Blackout protest to recognize PIPA still being on the legislative table. While SOPA passing is now a recent memory, PIPA is still a very real and dangerous bill that will still irrevocably alter the way the Internet works, and can have terrible economic consequences on sites with great content, such as The Faster Times. At the very least, it will cause all of us here to have to consider a new line of work.

A number of tech industry folk put together a video on SOPA and PIPA including internet celebrities and entrepreneurs such as Jim Sterling, Chad Vadar, Ben Huh, Rick Calvert, Andy Hayes, Jerry Lawson, Chris Ducker, Andrea Vahl as Grandma Mary, Courtney and Adam Baker and Jessica Gottlieb. It would definitely be to your benefit to check out the video to just be more educated and aware from industry experts about this legislation

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zCNa1XSwdw

Comments