Some SOPA Cosponsors Running for the Hills

Reps. Ben Quayle, R-Ariz., Lee Terry, R-Neb., and Tim Holden, D-Pa., withdrew their sponsorship of the legislation, and on Wednesday Reps. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., and Dennis Ross, R-Fla., separately told us that they were “taking a second look” and “reconsidering” their support. At our deadline the bill still had 25 of its original 30 cosponsors vowing support for the bill. Those members are: Reps. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., Joe Baca, D-Calif., John Barrow, D-Ga., Karen Bass, D-Calif., Howard Berman, D-Calif., John Carter, R-Texas, Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., Ted Deutch, D-Fla., Elton Gallegly, R-Calif., John Larson, D-Conn., Ben Lujan, D-N.M., Alan Nunnelee, R-Miss., Bill Owens, D-N.Y., Steve Scalise, R-La., Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Brad Sherman, D-Calif., Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., Mel Watt, D-N.C., Tom Marino, R-Pa., Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., Peter King, R-N.Y., Judy Chu, D-Calif., John Conyers, D-Mich., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif.

Assuming that all 39 members of the House Judiciary Committee vote during the final markup of the bill, it will require 20 yes votes for SOPA to pass and move to a full vote in the House. Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said Tuesday that he plans to resume the markup of the bill in early February, though he declined to specify when. The original markup was postponed in December as lawmakers recessed for the holidays (WID Dec 19 p1).

Holden said through his spokesman Wednesday that he withdrew his support for the bill after he heard from “many constituents” about the “unintended consequences” of the legislation. “Based on my background as a sheriff, the Stop Online Piracy Act … was brought to me as a law enforcement bill. At its core, the bill’s intent to eliminate theft by foreign websites protects the intellectual property of American manufacturers of all spheres. However, the possible unintended consequences, such as stifling innovation and limiting free speech on the Internet, have come to the forefront of debate. An open Internet requires that we find a better approach that is acceptable to all sides. Therefore, I withdrew my cosponsorship of this bill and will work to find a solution that protects both the openness and innovation of the Internet as well as intellectual property.”

Quayle’s spokesperson told us that while the congressman still “supports the underlying principle of the bill to keep foreign websites from pirating content and destroying American jobs, he believes the bill in its current form is not the best vehicle to accomplish that and has far too many unintended consequences and can no longer support it.” Quayle withdrew his sponsorship of the legislation Tuesday, prior to the Web blackouts. A spokesman for Terry confirmed that the congressman had withdrawn his support for the legislation and told us that “the Omaha area weighed in heavily on the issue and the Congressman listened to his constituency.”

Griffin told us he would withdraw his support for the bill unless his constituents’ concerns were alleviated. “I was hopeful we could revise SOPA to address concerns raised, and I remain hopeful. However, I am taking a second look at SOPA to see if that is possible. I will not support a bill unless my constituents are comfortable with it.”

Ross is “reconsidering” his support for the bill, a spokesman told us Wednesday. “The rush to get SOPA out of committee is not in line with the need to have consensus on an issue affecting the economic engine of the 21st century,” he said. “Today’s blackouts are Democracy in action and illustrative of the power of the Internet. Something Rep. Ross wants to protect. He believes we can defend inventors without harming individual liberty.”

Some SOPA sponsors maintained their support for the legislation and derided the Internet blackouts as “gimmicks” and a distraction to the real issue of online piracy. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said: “It’s shameful that the critics of this legislation have resorted to these sort of gimmicks that do nothing to help move this process forward. Instead of working to protect the Constitutionally-guaranteed property rights of American innovators as our founding fathers intended, liberal special interest groups like MoveOn.org continue to mislead the public about the true intention of this legislation -- stopping foreign-based online piracy. However, by shutting down their website for a day, MoveOn.org is probably doing the American people a huge favor.”

House Judiciary Committee member Mel Watt, D-N.C., told us Wednesday that he was not planning to reevaluate his support for the bill, though he was open to changing the text of the legislation in order to address the concerns voiced by its opponents. “My position has always been that we weren’t wedded to the original bill. I have been open to changing the bill,” Watt said. “I am open to ideas, but one of those ideas is not capitulation,” he said. Watt acknowledged the Web blackouts were having an impact on the debate but said he would prefer it if opponents of the bill “expressed themselves in a meaningful way to suggest solutions to a serious and substantial problem. Unfortunately a lot of the people who are expressing themselves don’t want anything to happen. I don’t think that is a viable approach to legislating.”

A spokesman for Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., said the congresswoman was “committed to fighting online piracy, which costs our economy billions of dollars a year and destroys countless American jobs,” in a statement emailed Wednesday. Bono Mack “also remains very supportive of the technology sector and will continue to work with both sides to address concerns raised about any unintended effects of the legislation,” the spokesman said.

The tech sector voiced its opposition to the legislation Wednesday, with many sites blacking out their home pages and in some cases their entire sites. Wikipedia blocked all content on its English-language site and posted text that said: “Imagine a world without free knowledge. For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet.” Craigslist, Tumblr, Reddit, and thousands of other sites also took their content offline in a coordinated protest of the legislation.

Google put a black bar over its homepage logo and asked its users to petition Congress to stop the bill. The company explained in a blog post that SOPA and its Senate companion bill, the PROTECT IP Act, would censor the Web, risk the industry’s track record of innovation and job creation, make it easier to sue law-abiding U.S. companies and fail to stop piracy. “We think there is more that can be done here -- like targeted and focused steps to cut off the money supply to foreign pirate sites. If you cut off the money flow, you cut the incentive to steal,” the post said.

Though Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg did not black out his social network, he protested the bills in a blog post Wednesday. “We can’t let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the Internet’s development,” he said. “Facebook opposes SOPA and [PROTECT IP], and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the Internet. The world today needs political leaders who are pro-Internet. We have been working with many of these folks for months on better alternatives to these current proposals."

FCC and FTC officials backed the administration’s position, expressing their own concerns about overbroad efforts to crack down on piracy. “We shouldn’t and can’t do it in a way that compromises free speech, that compromises innovation, or that compromises cybersecurity,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said. “Public engagement” on the issue has been helpful, he told an event at the George Washington University Wednesday, with a goal of finding a “solution that preserves free speech.” (See related report in this issue.)

It’s good to keep in mind that some illicitly-accessed content might not be bought were it not pirated, said FTC Chief Technologist Edward Felten. “The economics are more complicated than almost anyone on either side of the issue” readily recognizes, he said in a Q-and-A with Jeffrey Rosen of The New Republic at the GW event. “Many changes in consumption of media” are “unrelated to piracy” and have to do with “changes in the balance of power” in how content is created and distributed, Felten said. “Piracy is part of the picture as well. But it’s not the case that every time someone gets a pirated copy of something, they would have bought it” otherwise, he added: There are “promotional benefits to an industry for having their works discussed,” though industry “clearly” is “suffering” because of piracy.

The White House this weekend “was unequivocal” about concerns on fighting the theft of content, said Alec Ross of the State Department. The administration stated that “any attempt to combat online piracy cannot have the unintended consequence of censoring legal online content,” he continued. The statement was “extensive and exhaustive,” said Ross. He’s a senior adviser on technology to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.