[IRP] Aaaaand SOPA gets delayed too!

[Jochai Ben-Avie]

> House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) announced on
> Friday that he will postpone consideridation of his Stop Online Piracy Act
> (SOPA) until there is wider agreement on a solution.


He had previously delayed the mark-up to "February"

Full story here:

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/205345-gop-chairman-postpones-piracy-legislation?utm_campaign=HilliconValley&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter#.TxmJHJVYpVQ.twitter

Awesome!

Cheers,
Jochai

On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 10:04 AM, Jochai Ben-Avie <jochai at accessnow.org>wrote:

> Just to clarify, my "we did it" statement referred to the larger internet
> community, not just those on this list, although I certainly think the
> human rights community played a role on this! Thanks again for all of your
> support!
>
> Cheers,
> Jochai
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 9:58 AM, Jochai Ben-Avie <jochai at accessnow.org>wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Just wanted to let you know that... we did it! Everyone, we did it!
>> Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has postponed Tuesday's cloture vote!
>>
>> Press release from Reid's office is below, but wanted to let you know
>> that the Public Knowledge strategy call originally scheduled for 1 PM EST
>> (GMT-5) has been moved to 2 PM and we'll be discussing next steps. Let me
>> know if you want the number.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Jochai
>>
>>
>>
>> http://democrats.senate.gov/2012/01/20/reid-statement-on-intellectual-property-bill/
>>
>>
>> Washington, D.C. ? Nevada Senator Harry Reid released the following
>> statement today on the Senate?s PROTECT I.P. Act:
>>
>> ?In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday?s vote on
>> the PROTECT I.P. Act.
>>
>> ?There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this
>> bill cannot be resolved. Counterfeiting and piracy cost the American
>> economy billions of dollars and thousands of jobs each year, with the movie
>> industry alone supporting over 2.2 million jobs. We must take action to
>> stop these illegal practices. We live in a country where people rightfully
>> expect to be fairly compensated for a day?s work, whether that person is a
>> miner in the high desert of Nevada, an independent band in New York City,
>> or a union worker on the back lots of a California movie studio.
>>
>> ?I admire the work that Chairman Leahy has put into this bill. I
>> encourage him to continue engaging with all stakeholders to forge a balance
>> between protecting Americans? intellectual property, and maintaining
>> openness and innovation on the internet. We made good progress through the
>> discussions we?ve held in recent days, and I am optimistic that we can
>> reach a compromise in the coming weeks.?
>>
>> On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 11:57 PM, Jochai Ben-Avie <jochai at accessnow.org>wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Everyone,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Just wanted to reach out and give a brief summary of what?s been
>>> happening around PIPA and the letter you all signed on to.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> As I?m sure many of you know, yesterday, more than 115,000 websites
>>> blacked out to protest PIPA and SOPA. I spent a large chunk of the day on
>>> the Hill and the phones in Senate offices were ringing non-stop. Senator
>>> Kirk?s office, for example, said that they had received 5,000 calls in less
>>> than 24 hours. Some are saying that this is the most calls on *any*issue that the Senate has
>>> *ever* received.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On the offline side, the protest outside Sens. Schumer and Gillibrand?s
>>> offices in NYC coordinated by NY Tech Meetup was a rousing success, with
>>> about 2,500 people turning out? perhaps the largest copyright protest ever.
>>> Most of the Access Team was at the protest holding a giant 9x3 foot banner
>>> that said ?Say No to PIPA and SOPA? and then called attention to the letter
>>> from the human rights community, listing the URL, and the names of all of
>>> the signatories. For more details and photos, check out our blog post
>>> here<https://www.accessnow.org/policy-activism/press-blog/pipa-sopa-internet-censorship>.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On the letter:
>>>
>>> A group of human rights organizations (including myself) were on the
>>> Hill yesterday pushing the issues we raised in the letter. My impression is
>>> that a lot of Senators (and Representatives, but the focus is on the House
>>> at the moment given the legislative calendar) are really starting to grok
>>> that this legislation affects human rights and are pulling their support or
>>> going from no position to opposition. The fact that respected human rights
>>> like ours are speaking out is making it easier for Senators to wean
>>> themselves off the ?there are no first amendment concerns in this bill
>>> because it only deals with piracy koolaid.? I?ll also add that the section
>>> on information location tools in particular seemed to have resonance and
>>> didn?t appear to be an issue that staffers were familiar with.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Today, with help from the Free Press Action Fund, one of our
>>> co-signatories, we delivered the letter to the full Senate. *It would
>>> be really great if everyone on this list could follow up with any contacts
>>> that you have on the Hill to make sure they see the letter.* The final
>>> version of the letter can be found at
>>> https://www.accessnow.org/pipa-letter, if you want to give a link to
>>> download the letter as a PDF use:
>>> https://www.accessnow.org/page/-/docs/PIPA-LETTER-FROM-HUMAN-RIGHTS-COMMUNITY-FINAL.pdf.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Access press release about the delivery of the letter can be found here:
>>> https://www.accessnow.org/policy-activism/press-blog/human-rights-organizations-rally-against-pipa-sopa.
>>> *Please feel free to reuse this press release as you wish* (and change
>>> up the quotes), key thing is just to get media attention around the letter.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> While Tuesday?s vote is still a very real threat that we should be
>>> pushing hard on, things seem to be going our way. This afternoon, I?ve
>>> heard that Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader won't be whipping votes
>>> for the vote on Tuesday, and Mitch McConnell (the Senate Minority Leader)
>>> has come out against. However, if this bill passes a cloture vote on
>>> Tuesday, it?s about 95% down the road to becoming law, and at that point we
>>> can only hope for amendments to make it better.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Complicating things a little bit is that a Kyl-Leahy brokered manager?s
>>> amendment may drop as early as tomorrow. For those not so familiar with
>>> these names, Sen. Leahy is the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee
>>> and the lead sponsor of PIPA and Sen. Kyl is the Republican Whip (the
>>> second highest ranking Republican in the Senate). For those who don?t speak
>>> American legislative lingo, a manager?s amendment allows the lead sponsor
>>> of the legislation (in this case Senator Leahy) to more or less
>>> unilaterally rewrite the provisions of the bill, so PIPA post-manager?s
>>> amendment may look like a very different piece of legislation. Leahy?s
>>> office will try and sell this as a compromise, assuaging the concerns that
>>> opponents and citizens of the internet have raised, but the messaging
>>> around this should be ?you don?t compromise on human rights.? Moreover,
>>> without seeing the actual language of the manager's amendment (which the
>>> public probably won?t see until Monday), we're just kind of taking Leahy's
>>> at his word that problematic elements have been removed, and there are too
>>> many BIG problems with this bill to extend him that kind of trust. We need
>>> rhetoric like the internet is too important an enabler of human rights to
>>> make hasty decisions and backrooms deals about its governance.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> For those who really want to dive deep into the inside the beltway
>>> machinations and movements around this bill, Public Knowledge (one of the
>>> DC groups that?s been leading the charge in the fight against PIPA/SOPA) is
>>> holding a strategy call tomorrow at 1PM EST (GMT-5). Happy to pass on the
>>> number to those interested.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> If you have any questions let me know. Thanks for all your support!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Jochai
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> Jochai Ben-Avie
>>> Policy Director
>>> Access | AccessNow.org
>>> P: +1-347-806-9531 | S: jochaiben-avie | PGP: 0x9E6D805F
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Jochai Ben-Avie
>> Policy Director
>> Access | AccessNow.org
>> P: +1-347-806-9531 | S: jochaiben-avie | PGP: 0x9E6D805F
>>
>>
>
>
> --
>
> Jochai Ben-Avie
> Policy Director
> Access | AccessNow.org
> P: +1-347-806-9531 | S: jochaiben-avie | PGP: 0x9E6D805F
>
>


-- 

Jochai Ben-Avie
Policy Director
Access | AccessNow.org
P: +1-347-806-9531 | S: jochaiben-avie | PGP: 0x9E6D805F
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.internetrightsandprinciples.org/pipermail/irp-internetrightsandprinciples.org/attachments/20120120/1955005b/attachment.htm>