Ben Werdmuller (cc-by-2.0)
Support for the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT-IP Act collapsed last week in the face of massive public outcry and a January 18 internet blackout. Google reported that millions people signed its petition against the legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Reid postponed a vote on PIPA, prompting a cool response from Sen. Leahy, who sponsored the bill.
In the House, Rep. Smith postponed action on SOPA “until there is wider agreement on a solution” to online piracy.
Writers and activists are pointing out that the Anticounterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) threatens to require the same type of tough IP Enforcement on nations that accede to it.
Examples include:
- Cory Doctorow. White House petition to end support for ACTA – “ACTA is a secretly negotiated copyright treaty that obliges its signatories to take on many of the worst features of SOPA and PIPA. The EU is nearing ratification of it. ACTA was instigated by US trade reps under the Bush Administration, who devised and enforced its unique secrecy regime, but the Obama administration enthusiastically pursued it.”
- Derechos Digitales. “TPP: spoons of the same “SOPA.” – “while a lot of people demonstrate against the American bill, the governments of Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and the U.S. are agreeing in a new international agreement that includes some of the worse threats of S.O.P.A.: the censoring of website because of possible copyright infringement, by giving policy power to online service providers.”
- E.D. Kain for Forbes. “If You Thought SOPA Was Bad, Just Wait Until You Meet ACTA.” – “Few people have heard of ACTA, or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, but the provisions in the agreement are just as pernicious as anything we saw in SOPA. Worse, the agreement spans virtually all of the countries in the developed world, including all of the EU, the United States, Switzerland and Japan.”
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