SOPA Put on Hold for the Time Being

SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, that could end up crippling the internet as we know it was meant to put to a vote in the US senate tomorrow. Word comes that that vote has been put to a halt, until the Democrats and Republicans can reach a consensus on its implementation.

The good news comes courtesy of Darrell Issa, a Republican representative and chairman of the house oversight and government reform committee…whatever exactly that is.

 

“While I remain concerned about Senate action on the Protect IP Act, I am confident that flawed legislation will not be taken up by this House,” he said in a statement. “Majority leader Cantor has assured me that we will continue to work to address outstanding concerns and work to build a consensus prior to any anti-piracy legislation coming before the House for a vote.”

“The voice of the internet community has been heard. Much more education for members of Congress about the workings of the internet is essential if anti-piracy legislation is to be workable and achieve broad appeal.”

 

This follows two bits of other good news regarding the controversial bill. Not only is  Obama’s administration set against SOPA, saying “we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet,” but the bit in the bill about internet service providers being forced to block the DNS’ of infringing sites in the bill has been removed.

This is a marked victory for internet freedom, but it’s not over yet. Right now, the vote is just “on hold,” but it’s looking more and more unlikely that SOPA will be implemented.

As a gamer, here’s what you stand to lose if SOPA passes, according to Gameranx:

* Mods
* “Let’s Play” videos
* Video replays
* Video reviews and commentary
* Unofficial game guides
* The taking, hosting, and sharing of screenshots, artistic or otherwise
* Image forums (Reddit, 4chan)

Worse is that the gaming companies you love (and love to hate) are largely in support of this act, through their links with the Entertainment Software Association – the trade organisation that organises E3 every year and, hypocritically, lists “Combating governmentally imposed video game censorship and regulation” as one of its duties and wholly supports the act.