http://www.trippedmedia.com/2012/02/lamar-smith-at-it-again-with-porn-bill-internet-makes-plans-to-unseat-him/By Grant Gross
January 17, 2012 05:39 PM ET
IDG News Service - A hearing to amend and debate the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act should resume in February, its chief sponsor said, even in the face of new opposition to the copyright enforcement bill.
The House Judiciary Committee held three days of so-called markup hearings on SOPA in December, but opponents of the bill flooded the committee with more than 20 amendments. In a markup hearing, a committee votes on amendments to a bill and votes on whether to approve the bill and send it to the full House for action.
Representative Lamar Smith, the lead sponsor of SOPA and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday he intends to resume the markup session next month. "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," Smith, a Texas Republican, said in a statement.
Last Friday, Smith said he plans to offer an amendment taking out a provision in the bill that would allow the U.S. Department of Justice to seek court orders requiring U.S. ISPs (Internet service providers) to block subscriber access to foreign websites accused of copyright infringement.
Lawmakers have heard from thousands of Internet users who oppose SOPA. Opponents say the bill, even with the ISP provision taken out, offers little protection from court orders initiated by the DOJ and copyright holders. The bill could also block or choke off websites containing legitimate free speech, critics say.
Public Knowledge, a digital rights group opposed to SOPA, called on Smith to delay the markup of the bill.
The committee should "arrive at a consensus approach to resolving the issues in SOPA that have resulted in nation-wide protests, rather than to force through a bill on which there is widespread disagreement," Sherwin Siy, deputy legal director for the group, said in an email. "While we eagerly await a new version of the bill, it is clear that simply tinkering around the edges will not make this legislation acceptable."
Supporters of SOPA and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), a similar bill in the Senate, say the legislation is needed because U.S. law enforcement agencies and copyright holders have few tools to respond to foreign websites that infringe U.S. copyright. Infringement by foreign sites is a massive business issue, supporters of the bill say.
On Saturday, three officials with President Barack Obama's administration issued a statement that appeared to oppose SOPA and PIPA.
And on Wednesday, organizers expect about 7,000 websites, including Reddit, Wikipedia and Mozilla.org, to go dark in protest against SOPA and PIPA.
Chris Dodd, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, called the Web protest a "stunt" and a "gimmick."
"It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information [and] use their services," Dodd said in a statement. "It's a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests."
Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant's e-mail address is grant_gross@idg.com.
Posted by Ryan McManus on February 3, 2012 in News+Politics · 0 Comments
Photo: JERRY LARA, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
Lamar Smith, the infamous Texas Congressman behind SOPA, is facing criticism yet again for another Internet related bill associated with his name. H.R.1984 1981 would force Internet service providers to track and store every action of its subscribers for a year, you know, in case the government ever suspects you of being a pedophile. (Which isn’t unlikely; the number of people on the government’s no-fly list has doubled in the last year to about 21,000 names.) H.R. 1981 limits Internet freedom in a very different way than SOPA. SOPA restricted freedom of content whereas H.R. 1981 would essentially tag and monitor us similarly to Orwell’s 1984. What may be worse: the piece of legislation that justifies this restriction is named the Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act. I’d rather vote against something called the Patriot Act before I voted against something titled “Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers.”It’s already garnered disapproval from organizations like the ACLU as well as other Congressmen from both parties. But that’s not stopping Politico’s policymaker of the year from continuing his push to stifle Internet freedom. In the wake of SOPA’s indefinite suspension (read: after the election), he’s talked about passing this piece of legislation. There is an alternative to H.R. 1981 in the Senate, S. 1308 proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), that doesn’t subject Internet users to being tracked.
In response, DemandProgress.org has already started a petition to stop it.
Lamar Smith has made a name for himself on an international level; Google Trends shows that since SOPA the desire to learn about the Congressman has increased astronomically. He’s the center of an Internet meme and a quick search of the Congressman’s name is almost as embarassing as a search for Rick Santorum. He will have a difficult time convincing his constituency that despite his shortcomings in popular opinion, he deserves another term to represent them.
Which is why Reddit has aggressively started a campaign to unseat the Congressman while funding and promoting his competitor, Sheriff Mack. They have a subforum dedicated to unseating Lamar Smith. There, people across the world can donate to the campaign. As we’ve written in the past, Representative Smith receives a good deal of money from the entertainment industry. Small contributions and support, much of it coming from Ron Paul’s dedicated supporters, can add up to a competitive amount of money for Sheriff Mack’s bid to replace the incumbent.
While H.R. 1981 would ultimately create a database for user’s Internet history, including searches taken out of context, purchases with credit card numbers and other useful data for marketers, critics also question its effectiveness. It fails to combat those users that conceal their identity behind proxies. Users who correctly conceal their identity can download child pornography or even purchase illegal substances and guns. Meaning, the government monitoring program would only create new costs for ISPs and be more intrusive for the common Internet user yet does very little to properly combat child pornography.
The Internet’s already spewing anti-Lamar Smith sentiment, SMBC has a fun comic mocking the Congressman. Even with Smith’s cleverly named bill (seriously, who does his copywriting?), looking at how the Internet rallied to postpone SOPA it wouldn’t be terribly difficult to repeat the performance.
This is what happens when you get a lawyer to try and fix the Internet.
Месец дена без филмови, музика игра, па се издржува, ја мислам дека може да се изведе.
Не се нормални што прават овие американциве...
Би било добро да се приклучиме кон овој „црн март“...
Работата е што никој не ја сфаќа сериозно СОПА и никој нема да го праи ова.Месец дена без филмови, музика игра, па се издржува, ја мислам дека може да се изведе.
Што поточно БИ СЕ НАПРАВИЛО ако гласаме на линков?
Ние цело време трчаме по нив(официјално), а гледаме какви 'бенефити' ни носат тие од ФЕУ.Со оглед какви ни се политичарите, во многу брзо време и кај нас ќе е ова.А веќе и имаше некој Закон за телекомуникации / медиуми или така нешто, со слична содржина на АКТА.Ме интересира,ако се изгласа законот во рамки на Европска унија,а ние не сме како држава во ЕУ,значи законов ваму нема да важи така?
Убаво си напишал,"наводно",нормално дека ќе биде наводно и сомнително кога овој текст како да е пишан од т.н. "корпорациски" новинари-тоа се оние кои немаат врска со објективното новинарство,туку имаат врска со профитерското и лажно новинарство,пласираат убаво спакувани и брендирани вести кои им одговараат само на оние кои платиле за нив(кај нас ваков новинар беше Ѓероски од А1 кој работеше за нашиот јужен сосед).Еве денес паднаа и моите лични херои -btjunkie-веројатно ова е почеток на крајот на интернетот каков сите ние го сакаме и познаваме,да ја имаме Замунда,но прашање на време е кога и таа ќе биде под притисок и нападната.Во секој случај војната започна,ќе видиме кој ќе победи на крајот,сепак и ние сите не смееме да бидеме пасивни и ладни нкон сето воа,да не се случи на крајот да мораме да плаќаме и за сосема банални работи и сајтови,поздрав!Ова уствари нема никаква врска со СОПА и ПИПА колку што разбрав. Наводно дечките го користеле вебсајтот за перење пари и заработувале преку нелегална, пиратска содржина. Одлуката да се затвори била донесена на петти овој месец, а мегааплоуд бил под истрага доста долго време. Уште пред СОПА да се појави...
Претходно им било наредено да ги затворат акаунтите на луѓето што постирале пиратерии, ама овие не ги послушале.
Од тоа што прочитав овде, прекршиле еден куп авторски права и дебело профитирале. Наводно, заработиле 175 милиони долари минатата година.
Како и да е, додека постојат пајретбеј и замунда, немам гајле...