White House Will Not Support SOPA, PIPA
Posted by Michelle Moquin on January 17th, 2012
Good morning!
White House Will Not Support SOPA, PIPA
Saturday marked a major victory for opponents of proposed anti-piracy legislation Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), which would target foreign-based websites violating U.S. copyrights.
House of Representatives bill SOPA and its Senate counterpart PIPA are designed to punish websites that make available, for example, free movies and music without the permission of the U.S. rights holders. Opponents of the bills, however, worry that the proposed laws would grant the Department of Justice too much regulatory power. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has called the measures “draconian.” Other Internet giants who oppose the bill include Facebook, eBay, Mozilla, Twitter, and Huffington Post parent company AOL.
The White House on Saturday officially responded to two online petitions, “Stop the E-PARASITE Act” and “Veto the SOPA bill and any other future bills that threaten to diminish the free flow of information,” urging the President to reject SOPA and PIPA.
The statement was drawn up by Victoria Espinel, Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator at Office of Management and Budget, Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Chief Technology Officer, and Howard Schmidt, Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator for National Security Staff. They made clear that the White House will not support legislation that disrupts the open standards of the Internet.
“While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet,” the statement read in part.
The White House statement went on to say, however, that the Obama Administration believes “online piracy is a real problem that harms the American economy” and that 2012 should see the passage of narrower legislation that targets the source of foreign copyright infringement.
The letter also highlighted the following four points:
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. [...] We must avoid creating new cybersecurity risks or disrupting the underlying architecture of the Internet. [...] That is why the Administration calls on all sides to work together to pass sound legislation this year that provides prosecutors and rights holders new legal tools to combat online piracy originating beyond U.S. borders [...] We expect and encourage all private parties, including both content creators and Internet platform providers working together, to adopt voluntary measures and best practices to reduce online piracy.
This is not the end of the debate, the White House statement emphasized. “Moving forward, we will continue to work with Congress on a bipartisan basis on legislation that provides new tools needed in the global fight against piracy and counterfeiting, while vigorously defending an open Internet based on the values of free expression, privacy, security and innovation,” the letter also read.
Following the release of the White House’s statement, SOPA sponsor and House Judiciary Chairman (R-Texas) Lamar Smith issued a statement of his own.
“I welcome today’s announcement that the White House will support legislation to combat online piracy that protects free speech, the Internet and America’s intellectual property,” Smith said,according to The Hill. “That’s precisely what the Stop Online Piracy Act does.”
On Friday, CNET reported that Smith said he will remove from the bill one of the most hotly contested provisions, Domain Name System requirements. Previously, SOPA had called for DNS blocking of infringing websites.
On Thursday, PIPA author Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) said that “more study” was needed to asses the bill’s DNS-blocking provision, the Wall Street Journal wrote.
The White House’s statement condemned DNS blocking in regulatory efforts and said that it “pose[s] a real risk to cybersecurity and yet leave contraband goods and services accessible online. We must avoid legislation that drives users to dangerous, unreliable DNS servers and puts next-generation security policies, such as the deployment of DNSSEC, at risk.”
A House Oversight Committee hearing on SOPA’s DNS-blocking provision had previously been scheduled for January 18. However, according to Tech Dirt, Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-California) said that the hearing will be postponed for the time being and that the focus now should be placed on the Senate’s PIPA bill, which Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has committed to moving forward in the next two weeks.
UPDATE: The Motion Picture Association of America Inc. (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have each released a response to the White House’s position on SOPA and PIPA.
Michael O’Leary, Senior Executive Vice President for Global Policy and External Affairs for the MPAA said the following in a statement emailed to the HuffPost:
While we agree with the White House that protection against online piracy is vital, that protection must be meaningful to protect the people who have been and will continue to be victimized if legislation is not enacted. Meaningful legislation must include measured and reasonable remedies that include ad brokers, payment processors and search engines. They must be part of a solution that stops theft and protects American consumers. [...] On behalf of the 2.2 million Americans whose jobs depend on the film and television industries, we look forward to the Administration playing a constructive role in this process and working with us to pass legislation that will offer real protection for American jobs.
In the same email, Mitch Glazier, Senior Executive Vice President of the RIAA, said, “[L]egislation is of no benefit, nor will we support it, if it allows the leading Internet companies to direct law abiding consumers to unlawful and dangerous sites.”
David Hirschmann, President and CEO of the Global Intellectual Property Center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, reiterated the Chamber’s strong support for both SOPA and PIPA. “The Administration’s main concern, centered on DNS issues, has already been addressed by both Senator Leahy and Representative Smith. We also applaud Senator Reid, Senator Leahy, and Representative Smith for their commitment to move forward with pending legislation through an open and bipartisan process,” Hirschmann said.
Readers: Speaking of the White House…
…I want to wish FLOTUS a very Happy Birthday!
Peace & Love…
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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January 17th, 2012 at 9:41 am
Romney, a man for “the people”! “…Then, I get speakers fees from time to time, but not very much.”…$362,000 last year, a period during which he joked he was “unemployed”.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/17/mitt-romney-not-much-definition-speaking-fees_n_1210522.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009
Happy B Day to you, Michelle O! Sorry about not being able to make the party!! Perhaps another time!
January 17th, 2012 at 2:21 pm
Main Dude Doug, Loved the beagle story that you linked me to, thanks.
Romney, a man for “the people”! “…Then, I get speakers fees from time to time, but not very much.”…$362,000 last year, a period during which he joked he was “unemployed”. That’s a lot of cheese. Romney hasn’t got a clue to what the 99%ers are going through, especially the poorer end of that 99%. That’s more money than some people make in a lifetime of backbreaking hard work.
How can a man who cannot put a proper value on money, and understand what some go through to earn it, possibly claim to be fit to run this Country? Romney is so distanced from the plight of the American People (only $362,000) that he couldn’t possibly run this country FOR THE PEOPLE. He doesn’t know how.
He could however give tax breaks and bailouts to the wealthy and just cut some social programs, or infrastucture repairs, SS, and all the other things that this country needs like jobs. In essence giving away the country and taxpayers money to those who need it least.
This guy is a moron 100% and silverspooned into lala land.
Al
January 18th, 2012 at 7:06 am
Thank you for the video Doug on the beagles. I think people forget this still goes on. I have to share this one.
Happy New Year all! I have had some personal tragedies starting off 2012 but I think I’m back on track now. I wish you all peace and prosperity for 2012 and much love.
/SB
January 18th, 2012 at 7:42 am
The National Organization for Marriage is flooding the inboxes and phone lines of lawmakers in a state-by-state attack on marriage equality.
Last week they launched a campaign called the “Culture War Victory Fund” to exclude loving couples from marriage through hate-driven efforts in New Hampshire, North Carolina, Minnesota, and other states – starting as early as this month.
So, you and I have a decision to make right now.
We can cross our fingers and hope for the best when voting starts. Or we can get to work organizing grassroots supporters nationwide with the same tenacity that ended “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and brought marriage equality to New York.
January 18th, 2012 at 7:49 am
A MIND-SET THAT MAY FIGHT CANCER
A friend who is undergoing treatment for breast cancer gave me a book that she had just finished reading. She found it so helpful that she thought I would want to share it with Daily Health News readers.
I read it over the weekend, and she’s right — it’s quite a story. It’s filled with unusual ideas that may help patients with all kinds of cancer — not only breast cancer — beat their disease.
What gives the story a unique twist is that the author, Kim Allison, MD, is the director of breast pathology at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle…
and Dr. Allison had been promoted into this position just a few weeks before learning, at age 33, that she had an aggressive form of breast cancer with an average five-year survival rate of only 40%.
Today, four years later, she is healthy — and the book, Red Sunshine: A Story of Strength and Inspiration from a Doctor Who Survived Stage 3 Breast Cancer, explains how she got that way. I called her to find out more.
Knowing how serious her cancer was, Dr. Allison told me, she chose a “take no prisoners” treatment plan that included chemo, radiation and surgery.
She decided to have both breasts removed even though she had cancer on only one side. But those aren’t the parts of her treatment that make her story so unique and valuable…
it’s the things that she did in addition to that — which doctors almost never tell their patients to do!
ADDING A SECOND APPROACH
As a specialist, Dr. Allison knew as much as anyone could about how to treat her disease medically, but she decided to also develop her own “alternative” treatment strategy so she could feel that she was marshaling every possible resource that might improve her odds of survival.
Even as a healthy person not facing cancer or any other serious illness, I found her approach inspiring.
It’s important to note that Dr. Allison isn’t sure that any of the following actions helped cure her cancer, but she did tell me that they made the journey less onerous.
“These strategies changed my perspective and helped me get through each day,” she said. Here are some highlights from the book and our conversation…
THREE BIG IDEAS
I adjusted my attitude. Early on, Dr. Allison decided that she wanted to consider her fight an “opportunity to grow and learn about how tough I can be” rather than just questioning why something so bad had happened to her.
She decided that the poison being dripped into her veins — a potent drug called doxorubicin, nicknamed the “Red Devil” because of its deep, red color and horrible side effects –
should be considered her ally, so she renamed it “Red Sunshine.”
“That was an important mental switch, because it made me want to show up for treatment,” she said.
I recruited several great teams. As a busy working mother — with a four-year-old daughter, an infant son and a husband who had recently opened a restaurant —
Dr. Allison needed all the help that she could get with her disease and her life.
She was fortunate to have friends and family members who were available and willing to assist her. This isn’t always possible, she said, but it never hurts to ask for help.
She appointed these people to be “gurus” of different things.
For example, one was in charge of music (downloading tunes onto her iPod for her to listen to during chemo) and another, who still lived near her parents in California, was assigned the task of helping her parents cope from afar.
Dr. Allison’s medical treatment team included a pathologist, an oncologist and two surgeons.
But she also worked with a physical therapist, who taught her techniques to avoid complications like lymphedema (swelling in the arms) after surgery…
a nutritionist (who helped her eat a well-balanced diet)… a personal trainer (who helped her continue to work out by encouraging her to walk and do strength training and yoga)…
a naturopath (who advised her on supplements that might help with treatment side effects)… and an acupuncturist (who helped her keep her stress and pain levels under control).
This was an expensive group, no doubt, but Dr. Allison told me that many major cancer centers offer some of this support for free — and you often can get insurance to cover at least part of the cost.
I believed in “magic.” Though her career is all about science, Dr. Allison said that she was willing to believe in magic, too.
She visited a shaman — a spiritual adviser — an experience she found enriching in ways that she never expected.
And, with the help of her mother (who visited regularly) and a friend, she created a “healing ritual” in her backyard.
“We stated out loud in a united way that I was planning to destroy the cancer that had grown inside of me. Then I burned an image of my cancer in a fire,” she said.
I’m so glad that Dr. Allison’s cancer is now considered “most likely cured,” since there was no residual cancer after chemotherapy was completed — and she’s feeling great.
Only future research can determine whether or not her unusual, two-tiered psychological and medical approach can make a significant difference, in terms of fighting off cancer — but in my opinion, I’m sure it didn’t hurt.
Source(s):
Kim Allison, MD, director of breast pathology, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, and author of Red Sunshine:
A Story of Strength and Inspiration from a Doctor Who Survived Stage 3 Breast Cancer (Hatherleigh).
January 18th, 2012 at 8:06 am
The Issue of the kidnapping of the Princess has been resolved. But the issue of WAR may still present those of you so eager to take on the Emperor the opportunity.
He has a long memory. And even now as He prepares to discipline a Commander who took it upon himself to attack a planet under the aegis of His Empire.
Take note of those around you who have disappeared. Motherships from distant horizons are checking in to accept the discipline given to their wayward //7s.
The Emperor’s punishment was swift and sure. There will be no uprising in His realm. The insurrection of opinion and thought brought about swift action to negate the opportunity for War in this Zone.
Their Commanders have accepted the deaths of their //7s and have petitioned the Emperor to send replacements.
You may dislike the advantage our situation gives us, but you can not deny the expert counsel given to you by the TAO.
As a reminder to those of you to whom it was given and a notice to those of you new to this situation, I will repeat the admonition given.
DO NOT FUCK WITH THE EMPEROR! That would be especially in his domain.
Viv
January 18th, 2012 at 8:37 am
This is an interesting read because it shows how our legislators are as dumb as any of us.
I am a new arrival on Guam and I read this yesterday.
——————–
Government prosecutors plan to re-indict a sailor accused of slashing his girlfriend’s throat in 2010.
Bernard Jennings, 42, once faced several charges of attempted murder for the alleged attack, but those charges were dismissed late last year after a defense attorney argued that a new Guam legal precedent made those charges “impossible.”
Since the dismissal, attorneys have discussed plea offers and counter offers, but reached no agreement, said defense attorney F. Randall Cunliffe in court yesterday.
Assistant Attorney General Brian Gallagher confirmed that he intends to indict Jennings again.
“We do plan to re-charge the case,” Gallagher said. He would not confirm if the new indictment would include new attempted murder allegations.
Jennings has been held on $250,000 cash bail since he was arrested in December 2010. He is accused of locking a 9-year-old girl in an apartment at Ladera Towers, then attacking her mother with a deadly weapon, according to Superior Court of Guam documents.
According to court documents, the alleged attack left the bleeding woman racing down the building’s hallways, banging on doors and screaming for help. Police found Jennings soon after, sitting in his car at a nearby Winchell’s, covered in what appeared to be blood, court documents state.
Jennings was accused of two counts of aggravated attempted murder and one count of attempted murder, all of which were dismissed.
Prosecutors can re-file the first two charges, but the third charge was dismissed permanently.
Superior Court of Guam Judge Alberto Lamorena ruled that the “impossible” charge occurred because prosecutors had accused Jennings of attempting to kill the woman in “extreme indifference of human life,” which requires the suspect to act “recklessly,” however a suspect can’t attempt to act recklessly because the term reckless requires someone to act without thinking first.
==================
Why add the extra charge or even make it a law. Attempted murder is attempted murder. Like the stupid Guam Senator who writes a law to make the unborn born.
Troy
January 18th, 2012 at 8:40 am
Michelle, my mother has breast cancer so I was anxious to read today’s Health Info. But Damn if I could afford all the help and assistance that doctor got my mother would have a great chance of recovery too.
I do like the part about magic though. I believe in magic. Now if I can only convince my mother to.
Connie
January 18th, 2012 at 8:54 am
Mark Levin is unmasking the utopian pipe dream…
And boy does he ever with his new, soon-to-be blockbuster book, Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America. Because we got it good like that, our editors at HUMAN EVENTS were able to acquire an advanced copy before Levin’s latest hit bookstores nationwide today. We pored over the pages prior to its release in order to provide you with an in-depth interview with Levin on Ameritopia.
Find out why Mark wrote the book, how it differs from his last bestseller Liberty & Tyranny, and familiarize yourself with the money quote he dug up on “equality under the law” that should be memorized by the GOP candidate who must eventually face Barack Obama on a debate stage.
As Mark tells us, “Who are these people [utopians] and what is this force [utopia] that is so alluring to tens of millions of our fellow Americans, and yet will destroy them?”
Well, you’re gonna have to watch our interview with him to find out. Part one is posted here, and stay tuned this entire week for our exclusive with one of the conservative movement’s fiercest defenders.
—Jason Mattera
January 18th, 2012 at 9:02 am
I watched the South Carolina debate in which Gingrich insulted the black moderator and OTWs in general. The mostly white crowd roared in approval.
I’m surprised they didn’t carry Gingrich out on their shoulders! It’s still a pretty sick racist area and I doubt that it will ever change.
I have lived here all my life and almost every one of my relatives despise OTWs in general and literally hate blacks.
Most would rather see the country broken up rather than have Obama win another term.
Kathy
January 18th, 2012 at 9:06 am
Kathy I am a proud South Carolinan. We do not hate our nigras. We just want them to get a job and get off welfare.
Gingrich’s comments are offensive to the shakedown artists who make a living off our taxpayer’s money, running up my high schooler’s national credit card, for programs we would never choose, but are forced down our throats by their co-opting and abuse of government with their politicians and cronies.
EG I’d throw the “minimum wage” law OUT THE WINDOW, open up businesses to give entry-level jobs to young unskilled workers, so they LEARN HOW TO MAKE A LIVING, instead of take handouts from politicians and their cronies! A plethora of laws are on the books to address abuses.
January 18th, 2012 at 9:08 am
What I find interesting about the majority of Republicans and the GOP is they are not ashamed of their bigotry. They actually celebrate it.
January 18th, 2012 at 9:09 am
When White people speak out of prejudice towards Blacks, it’s always something that puts us down AS A PEOPLE.
When Black people speak out of prejudice towards Whites, it’s because something reminds us of an experience that happened to us PERSONALLY.
January 18th, 2012 at 9:10 am
Wow how do you even function in life if you spent as much time focusing on white people putting you down.
The times of your race in this country affecting your success are over if you fail in life it’s your own fault.
January 18th, 2012 at 9:12 am
That is what I am talking about. racists, bigots and liars say and think the darnedest things.
Newt and Santorum is calling our POTUS a food stamp President and state that Black folks want welfare and food stamps instead of paychecks and other nonsense.
People here are agreeing and Newt gets standing O’s.
Stop trying to say that racism is dead and that everytime we try to have a discussion to dispel that lie.
Share what it is happening and get people to understand their own bigotry we are interrupted and dismissed as throwing “the race card” and told to get over it.
It is not the past.
January 18th, 2012 at 9:13 am
I run a national business and I pay a living wage so I don’t have to worry about my empoyees running from my place of employment to another and killing productivity. So they can hold their heads up and support their families.
My clients want skilled workers and engineers not entry-level students.
A business can still hire interns and pay them a stipend that will give them valuable work experience.
It is not necessary to lower the minimum wage to accomplish that.