White House Pulls Support of SOPA and PIPA
Today marks a huge victory for opponents of the anti-piracy legislation Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). The White House has officially responded to two online petitions which urged the President to reject or veto SOPA and PIPA. The White House has decided to make clear it will not support any legislation that disrupts the open standards of the internet. It should be noted however that the White House still believes online piracy to be a problem for the American economy, and that 2012 will most likely see the passage of narrower legislation targeting the source of foreign copyright infringement. The White House’s statement also condemns DNS blocking in regulatory efforts as it will cause more cyber security problems, by driving users to dangerous and unreliable DNS servers. In the end the bad news seems to be that the legislation will if shot down make a reappearance, while the good news seems to be that there is some common sense prevailing on Capitol Hill.
This is not the end of the debate, the White House statement emphasized. “Moving forward, we will continue to work with Congress on a bipartisan basis on legislation that provides new tools needed in the global fight against piracy and counterfeiting, while vigorously defending an open Internet based on the values of free expression, privacy, security and innovation,” the letter also read.
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