MESSAGE
| DATE | 2011-12-19 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Reckless Congress
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SOPA committee continues work, despite holidays
Lack of expert evidence shows piracy act "divorced from
representation... reality"
2 Comments 269
TechLife | 19 Dec 2011 : The US House of Representatives Judiciary
Committee will continue its hearing on the controversial Stop Online
Piracy Act (SOPA) on Wednesday, not until after Congress' holiday break,
as originally believed.
Last Friday Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican and committee chairman,
scheduled a continuation of the hearing to amend the bill for Wednesday,
21 December, at 9am, even though many members of the committee may be
away for the holidays.
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At the urging of some SOPA opponents, Smith said he would consider a
hearing or a classified briefing on the bill's impact on cybersecurity.
More than 80 Internet engineers and cybersecurity experts have raised
security concerns about the bill, which would require ISPs and domain
name registrars to block the domain names of foreign websites accused of
copyright infringement.
It's unclear how Wednesday's hearing will affect any future hearings on
SOPA, which is sponsored by Smith and 31 other lawmakers.
Continuing the markup hearing on Wednesday, when many lawmakers had
planned to be out of Washington, DC, "demonstrates a clear desire to
continue dodging the questions raised by experts, members, and the
public," said Sherwin Siy, deputy legal director of Public Knowledge.
"This unwillingness to take expert evidence, listen to constituents, or
conduct due diligence in investigating the extraordinary harms risked by
SOPA shows a process divorced from representation, responsibility, and
reality," Siy said in a statement.
During Friday's hearing, Jason Chaffetz (pictured), a Utah Republican,
called for both a classified hearing and a public hearing on the
cybersecurity issues. "In the lone hearing on SOPA, the committee did
not hear from security experts and Internet engineers," he said. "We
have deep concerns about what this will do to cybersecurity.
"I think it would be dangerous for members on this committee to vote on
final passage of this bill without having at least one hearing and some
clarification" on the security impact."
Amendments
The committee will have about 30 amendments to consider after it resumes
debate on SOPA. Opponents of the bill flooded the committee with
amendments in an effort to slow down the committee's march toward
approval of the legislation.
Opponents of the bill on the Judiciary Committee include Republicans
Chaffetz, Issa and Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, as well as Democrats
Zoe Lofgren of California and Jared Polis of Colorado.
The committee previously voted down about 20 amendments designed to
address concerns from many members of the Internet and digital rights
communities.
On Friday, the committee only voted on a couple of amendments, including
one offered by Sensenbrenner that would have removed provisions in the
bill allowing private copyright holders to seek court orders requiring
payment processors and online advertising networks to stop doing
business with websites accused of copyright infringement. The committee
rejected the amendment in a 20-8 vote.
The bill allows the US Department of Justice to seek similar court
orders targeting ad networks and payment processors. The DoJ could also
seek court orders barring search engines from linking to allegedly
infringing sites, requiring domain name registrars to take down the
websites and requiring Internet service providers to block subscriber
access to the sites.
"The bill gives the DoJ significant power to target overseas websites
infringing copyright," Sensenbrenner said. "Enforcement should be a law
enforcement function in this area. We don't give people very many
opportunities to sue everybody in the world when law enforcement doesn't
do what they want them to do."
Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, said the right for copyright
holders to seek court orders is a "key provision" of SOPA. "If you are
not going to allow this legal relief, you are severely damaging the
bill," he said.
IDG News Service
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