SOPA shelved until ‘consensus’ is found

Brendan Sasso
The Hill
January 15, 2012

House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said early Saturday morning that Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) promised him the House will not vote on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) unless there is consensus on the bill.

“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,” Issa said in a statement. ”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.”

The announcement comes just hours after Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), SOPA’s sponsor, made a major concession to the bill’s critics by agreeing to drop a controversial provision that would have required Internet service providers to block infringing websites.

SOPA is designed to go after foreign websites that offer illegal copies of music, movies and TV shows with impunity. Even without the provision allowing sites to be blocked, the bill would empower the Justice Department and copyright holders to demand that search engines delete links to sites “dedicated” to copyright infringement. Ad networks and payment processors would be prohibited from doing business with the sites.

Full article here

Contact Eric Cantor and let him know there is no consensus on SOPA, that is is bad legislation that threatens free speech:

Office of the Majority Leader
H-329, The Capitol
House of Representatives
P: 202.225.4000

Washington, DC
303 Cannon Building
Washington, DC 20515
P: 202.225-2815
F: 202.225-0011

This article was posted: Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 9:44 am

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