SOPA Gets Shelved Following Informal Veto Threat From Obama Administration

It looks like all the support for anti-SOPA movements might actually be working with the bill now “shelved” and Congress deciding to further “address outstanding concerns” before continuing with a vote on the legislation.

Washington Monthly reported the decision followed the Obama administration’s response to the bill published Saturday.

According to the report, “House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said early Saturday morning that Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) promised him the House will not vote on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) unless there is consensus on the bill.”

Over the weekend The White House issued its official statement on SOPA and outlined which aspects of the bill (along with other similar legislation such as the Protect-IP Act) the administration will support.

We’ve detailed several times (here and here) what SOPA is all about, and it seems that The White House agrees we must “avoid creating new cybersecurity risks or disrupting the underlying architecture of the Internet”.

Here’s an excerpt from the full statement:

While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet. Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small…

To minimize this risk, new legislation must be narrowly targeted only at sites beyond the reach of current U.S. law, cover activity clearly prohibited under existing U.S. laws, and be effectively tailored, with strong due process and focused on criminal activity. 

The administration is essentially ensuring us that SOPA, at least as it currently stands,  wouldn’t stand a chance of passing. According to ZDNet, the decision to shelf SOPA comes after the U.S. House Judiciary decided to kill a controversial DNS-blocking method (that’s also part of SOPA) in order to “further examine the issues surrounding this provision.”

There are still worries that a revised version of SOPA will make its way to a vote sometime in the future. However, for now it looks like the Obama administration is siding with those who believe the bill goes beyond simply protecting intellectual property. The response from the White House issued Saturday is seen by many as an informal veto threat.

House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) had this to say in a statement on Saturday (via Washington Monthly):

“While I remain concerned about Senate action on the Protect IP Act, I am confident that flawed legislation will not be taken up by this House. Majority Leader Cantor has assured me that we will continue to work to address outstanding concerns and work to build consensus prior to any anti-piracy legislation coming before the House for a vote.”

RELATED LINKS:

SOPA For Dummies: A Simple Truth of What The Stop Online Piracy is all About

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