It appears as though one widely unpopular piece of legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) might be killed before the House of Representatives can bring it to a vote.
According to The Hill, House Majority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va. hinted to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., that the bill would not be brought to a vote without some sort of consensus.
This change in direction has probably come in wake of recent opposition of the bill from the White House and many members of the online community. For example, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has announced plans to shut down his website in protest of the bill on Wednesday.
However, even if Cantor's hint turns out to be true, the fight to prevent this overreach of government into the Internet will not be over.
SOPA's sister bill, the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), is still making its way to through the Senate.
According to Reason magazine Associate Editor Peter Suderman, these pieces of legislation "would make it a felony for any website to stream copyrighted material and essentially allow the blacklisting of entire domains."
While stopping online piracy sounds like a noble cause to some, the vague language of these bills make them far-reaching and hostile to the freedom of exchange that the Internet provides.
For instance, you could be fined or jailed for posting a video of yourself singing a copyrighted song. And although browsers like Firefox are already creating ways to circumvent these potential rules, according to Andy Greenberg at Forbes Magazine, these methods could make Internet users more vulnerable to hackers and identity thieves.
Whether it be through the guise of anti-piracy or net neutrality, the government has been trying to gets its slimy hands on the virtually unregulated Internet. To lawmakers, the Internet is a Wild West that must be tamed.
Others (correctly) view the Internet as a place for free expression, new ideas, increased commerce and creative opportunities on a scale that we have never seen. Sure, the Internet has predators, piracy and obscenity as well as blatantly racist, ignorant and false information. But overall, this is a small price to pay for the overall rewards the Web gives to people all over the world.
Recording and film studios have come out in favor of this legislation without any concern over the loss of free expression and creativity that makes their industries possible in the first place.
If the House of Representatives does decide to kill SOPA, it would be a huge step in the right direction. We hope the White House will follow through on its promise to stop either version of this harmful legislation from becoming law.
