[ratty redemption]

agreed and interesting. i'd previous not heard of filibustering, also kudos to that politician for standing up against his peers, both figuratively and literally.

[kat]

According to the various news outlets (Forbes just one of..), SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) has been 'killed'. Except it hasn't. It may seem like semantics but a delay or postponement doesn't qualify as a 'kill', so reporting it as such seems slightly irresponsible? Would that be the correct word to use in this context? Obama is reported to have suggested his not supporting the Bill. But again that doesn't mean he wouldn't or won't sign it if sufficiently prompted to do so (look to the passing of the recent NDAA for an example of his not liking something at a fundamental level and still signing it into law - he does have the authority to veto and send Bills back for redress).

So what are we left with? Basically, putting legislation on hold means just that; it can be re-opened once the fuss has quietened down so the assurances offered Congressman Issa that "Majority Leader Cantor has assured me that we will continue to work to address outstanding concerns" do not qualify as anything specifically meaningful or solid with regards to an actual or de-facto killing of the ACT dead in it's tracks.

There is an alternative, the "OPEN Act", being worked on right now as a sort of community effort. But beyond the originators of that document there doesn't appear to be much interest from the rest of Congress. So one is/should be hesitant about putting that forward as an alternative without first reading it in full; Politicians of all kinds are tricksters in the first degree!.

Additional Resources

• US Dept. of Commerce: Policy Framework for Protecting Consumer Privacy Online While Supporting Innovation (Dec 2010)
• US Government Accountability Office: Observations on Efforts to Quantify the Economic Effects of Counterfeit and Pirated Goods (Apr 2010)
• Federal trade Commission: Endorses “Do Not Track” to Facilitate Consumer Choice About Online Tracking

[ratty redemption]

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout

[kat]

Interesting TED talk worth a watch. It's probably the best summery there is of what all this legislation represents in the much broader sense of our general 'freedoms' (in actuality 'privileges') to do what we do on the Internet.