The fight isn’t over, but the Internet can breathe a little bit easier.
The White House has issued a statement coming out against the maligned SOPA--Stop Online Piracy Act--and PIPA--Protect IP Act--and the DNS redirection of SOPA has been removed.
Much has been written about legislation moving through Congress, a direct result of Hollywood groups looking to combat piracy through additional authority to regulate the 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,” said the White House in a statement. “[...] We must avoid creating new cybersecurity risks or disrupting the underlying architecture of the Internet.”
“After consultation with industry groups across the country,” said SOPA chief sponor Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas). “I feel we should remove Domain Name System blocking from the Stop Online Piracy Act so that the committee can further examine the issues surrounding this provision. We will continue to look for ways to ensure that foreign websites cannot sell and distribute illegal content to U.S. consumers.”
There may be good intentions behind SOPA and PIPA, but it’s the unintended consequences of such far-reaching legislation that has anyone who regularly uses the Internet really worried.
SOPA has received the brunt of the attention, largely because of the legislation’s ability to shut sites down, if a media company believes it's servicing pirated content. Not only have Internet users reacted loudly, but Internet companies have vocally opposed it, with a SOPA-rooted Internet “blackout” scheduled for the end of next week.