This is excellent, if temporary, news. The House Judiciary Committee holding hearings on SOPA adjourned without a vote. The bill be now be considered in 2012.
Update: Not so fast. It appears that the Judiciary Committee meeting may resume next Wednesday. Damn.
Update 2: Apparently the delay was to bring in some persons with knowledge as to how the Internet actually works. An unusual acknowledgement from Congress.
The guy who started it all – Texan Republican Representative Lamar Smith admitted he needs to look a little further into the investigation of claims that the legislation will damage the infrastructure of the internet. According to The Guardian, it was Republican Rep Jason Chaffetz from Utah who urged Smith to postpone the session until technical experts (read: people who actually now what the Internet is) could be brought in to discuss the impact of altering the Web’s domain-naming system to fight piracy.
The delay will not go over well with the media firms in Hollywood that have lobbied hard for SOPA. Holmes Wilson, co-founder of Fight For The Future, a lobbying group against SOPA, said: “It’s a huge victory, if a temporary one. This is not what they wanted.”
Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is for SOPA to die a swift death.
Related articles
- Live stream of SOPA judiciary committee hearing (keepthewebopen.com)
- When ignorance is bliss, then wisdom is folly | The nightmarish SOPA hearings (dccrowley.posterous.com)
- Everybody who’s anybody hates SOPA (boingboing.net)
