[IRP] Aaaaand SOPA gets delayed too!

Fri Jan 20 18:27:35 EET 2012

Congrats for now but what about the follow up?

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Cheers, Leon

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LEON WILLEMS

Director

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Witte Kruislaan 55?? 1217 AM Hilversum ? The Netherlands

T: +31 (0)35 6254300 ? F +31 (0)35 6254310 ? M: +31 (0)6 13111694

willems at freepressunlimited.org?? www.freepressunlimited.org

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-----Original message-----
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CC:team <team at accessnow.org>; 
From:Jochai Ben-Avie <jochai at accessnow.org>
Sent:Fri 20-01-2012 16:42
Subject:Aaaaand SOPA gets delayed too!

 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,

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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If you have any questions let me know. Thanks for all your support!

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Cheers,

Jochai

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--?

Jochai Ben-Avie
 Policy Director
 Access | AccessNow.org
P:?+1-347-806-9531?| S: jochaiben-avie | PGP: 0x9E6D805F

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?-- 

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

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