[IRP] Aaaaand SOPA gets delayed too!

Fri Jan 20 18:35:31 EET 2012

Now that's a good news! Thanks Jochai for the heads-up and congrats.
Please keep us posted on the next steps, I guess we need to stay vigilant.
Best
Lucie

Lucie Morillon
Reporters Without Borders / Reporters sans fronti?res
Head of New Media Desk / Responsable du Bureau Nouveaux M?dias
tel: +33 1 44 83 84 71
Email: internet at rsf.org
Twitter: @rsfnet
Skype: rsfnet

2012/1/20 Jochai Ben-Avie <jochai at accessnow.org>

>
> 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
>
>
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