Score one for the home team!
Following Wednesday’s blackout and the Senate postponing voting on the Protect IP Act, the House has decided to redraft the Stop Online Piracy Act.
Lead sponsor and House Judiciary Committee head Lamar Smith (R-TX) wanted to push SOPA through the committee but decided to back down.
Smith said the following on the issue:
I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. It is 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.
Senate Judiciary Commitee head Patrick Leahy (D-VT) was less gracious in defeat.
Leahy believed that the senators who pulled out of backing PIPA made a “knee-jerk reaction”
He stated the following:
Somewhere in China today, in Russia today, and in many other countries that do not respect American intellectual property, criminals who do nothing but peddle in counterfeit products and stolen American content are smugly watching how the United States Senate decided it was not even worth debating how to stop the overseas criminals from draining our economy,
Conveniently, he picked Russia and China as his example countries.
Still, many opposers to PIPA and SOPA believe that legislators need to start from scratch instead of simply rewriting the bills.
Let’s hope Congress can come a consenual and FAIR way to defend against online piracy.
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