Rep. Lamar Smith says the problem of online piracy is too big to ignore, but "it is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem."
Earlier this week, the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was dealt a serious setback when the House Oversight Committee chairman said that the legislation would not be put to a vote until there was consensus over the issue. Today, the bill's original sponsor joined the ranks of those distancing themselves from the bill, as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) issued a statement with his reactions to the fate of SOPA and its Senate counterpart, the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA).
"I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy," Smith said. "It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products."
While Smith said consideration of the bill is postponed for now, he called the problem of online piracy "too big to ignore" and said his committee would continue working with copyright holders and Internet outfits on ways to fight it.
SOPA drew much criticism for the methods by which it sought to squash piracy, among them DNS filtering, a practice by which SOPA would allow the government to block Americans' access to specific foreign sites suspected of engaging in piracy. While sponsors of SOPA and PIPA promised to drop the DNS filtering provisions last week, there remained sufficient outcry over the bill that online giants like Wikipedia and Google followed through with daylong changes to their websites to show their protest.
Companies that supported SOPA--including the National Football League (NFL) and GameSpot parent company CBS--argued that it offered necessary protection to content creators. Opponents of the bill, such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, argued that SOPA infringed upon First Amendment rights and would ultimately deprive the Internet of non-infringing content.
Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.
@theKSMM, you're not far off. "We should have acted. It is already here. Their defeat was mearly a delay." http://youtu.be/qlFyoEKV0dE "From the time after the internet was opened. When the sons of anon would splill their own blood. but no one wanted to believe, Believe it could exist. And when the truth finally dawns, It Dawns in Ireland."
My biggest fear is that SOPA/PIPA will be replaced quietly with something even more insidious. Their reaction to the hullabaloo may be to keep things hush-hush on the next go 'round.
Translation: Everyone is jumping ship on this one, I probably should too. Maybe I should have looked up this "internet" thing first.
make them make better games or force then to release them for 9.99. make the good ones 29.99.. problem solved.....
@Vodoo You do realize that Democrats have sponsored this as well. As a matter of fact, PIPA sponsor Sen. Patrick Leahy (D, VT) had similar DNS filtering language in his own legislation (http://www.gamespot.com/news/obama-issues-statement-on-sopa-6348654). Wake up and quit playing the left-vs-right b.s. game they got you believing. All politicians are corrupt at their core.
@skunkpants I wouldn't be so sure of it... These guys are learning, taking notes, analyzing public opinion, looking at the big internet corporation's reactions... They won't quit (there's too much money and power involved) and they will come back with something worse, harder to defeat. They're already gaining some people's support. Everybody can see SOPA is/was strongly flawed, and yet, look here at GameSpot's own comments session and you'll see young, internet-age people actually saying SOPA would be something good - that's almost unbelievable, but they managed to do it. Their discourse is attractive, ooh! "Let's stop the thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products", and people are falling for that. Lots and lots of people see the world in black and white "oh, piracy is BAD!", "Pirates are evil!", "Hackers are evil" and fail to see the big picture... Believe me, the struggle isn't over and represents a real danger to our future.
I bet Sony was in SUPPORT for this awful bill. Truth be told I bet this guy is a proud overpriced internet ready blu ray player owning member of the SDK. "Xbox 360 is the BEST console EVER made." --John Carmack
No matter how much money these people pump in to make this bill happen, it will never be a match towards the will and strength of the internet users!
@Cronicx- Politicians worry much more about the ones who sponsor their campaigns, for them piracy is a big problem, it affect the rich guys behind them. If there is one cent missing from the "1%" politicians will fight for it, if the "99%" have to suffer for it... they don't really care that much...that is, if it's not an election year. The world is twisted isn't it?
@Cronicx- well every politician sucks, I live in Romania and people are on the street for 1 week and the president doesn't even care ......The worst tipe of a human is a politician , the ultimate killer born to ruin lifes and steal as much as they can......Our responsibility is to judge them and to make them understand that we have the power not them.....This World has issues , we normal people should stick together....Stupid Bills should be met with disgust from people and it is our right to oppose stupid bills like that........
@hannify YOU KNOW WHAT?!....your right. :( we americans suck. at least our politicians do anyway
i just dont get how piracy (in this specific time and setting in history) is a "BIG" problem. i can think of at least 1,000 other problems bigger then illegally downloading the new eminem album lol
@Vodoo @racerx719 A lot of Dems and Reps are both for/against this. Typical political ****** up.
Says a lot for Smith's obscene lack of integrity. He was the one championing it all along in spite of all the criticism, yet only now as the publicity turns sour does he "see the light". A disgusting excuse for a human being. Decides to act as a mouthpiece for the industry with all his campaign contributions from the MPAA; and then decides to run with his tail between his legs when the going gets tough.
Figures he's from Texas. Ultra conservatism at its' finest over there. The guy looks like he could be George Bushs' twin. Conservatives don't get the digital age at all. If they had their way, there would be no internet at all, going to church on Sundays would be a law, and slavery would still be legal. People like that have no place in a modern society with there antiquated, conservative ideas... nevermind someone like that drafting laws that the whole nation should have to abide by.
Oh yeah, lets worry about "foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products." Instead of worrying about the oil companies who rob us in our own country or education
LMFAO @ that guys hair, what a D-bag, why would anyone want that guy deciding what websites we can surf?
He obviously doesn't want to get kicked out of the committee. F*** with the internet-- We F*** you back.
Something about this guy's **** eating grin tells me he'll be on the news in six months for having gay sex in an airport bathroom. :P
I bet this guy won't get re-elected, you can declare war on countries that did nothing but don't you dare mess with the internet.
@ArabrockermanX They did read the bill. 1st came the one dollar bill followed by the 200,000 dollar bill paid by the lobbyists. Congress passes bills to whoever pays them the most. Its a house of criminal activity.
This guy's a hypocrite. He used a photograph for the background of his campaign website and did not give credit to the photographer who took it. Politicians can be so stupid sometimes.
this does not mean it's going away, its a classic tactic with controversial laws to let the storm die down and then sign it quickly and silently after some amendments ... i would urge my american brethren who have two open eyes to not let your guard down yet, please, this affects the whole world
Wow look at the awful smile this guy makes me sick. SOPA was a really dumb idea. i think they do need to get a better handle on piracy this just isn't the way.
Politic... two words combined into one. 'poli' in the Greek means 'many' and 'tic' is what we call a blood-sucking parasite. You figure it out, lol.
@Purechaos you are partially correct (but i do agree with you). the reason games are expensive now as opposed to 5-10 years ago is because of overhead, not piracy. a game like modern warfare1/2/3 for example, whose end credits length match those of a full feature hollywood film, has such a HUGE overhead. there's so many people working on games now, that to actually turn a profit, they need to make multi-millions of dollars, in order to pay for everyones salary. game companies constantly blame piracy for poor sales, when in actuality, it's poor product. 9/10 times people will always buy something they like regardless of piracy... case and point: super meat boy, skyrim, limbo, gta4, any humble bundle title... the list goes on.
@graveyardfire this is the first step the gov't is trying to take to police the internet. they slap on a title like "anti piracy" and "creator protection" to make you think that it's to protect artists and creators alike... when in actuality, this bill allows the gov't (and companies/ corporations) to control what content is allowed to be viewed. therefore... if this bill passes, don't be surprised if you start seeing content and websites go down because it may be a "conflict of interest" to a corporation.
All this guy wanted to do was to create SOPA and PIPA and make it a law so that he would have been mega corporations favorite little girl and get money for being such a nice congressman. I am glad common sense prevailed over stupidity.
Intellectual property as a whole is stupid. The fact that they try so hard to protect it shows how capitalistic our country is.
Hey, wait a minute everyone, I think I got it, how about instead of RAISING PRICES or CHARGING INSaNE amounts of money for products, we OMG LOWER THEM!, you know like go form charging 50-60 freaking dollars for a game that only cost 1-2 bucks to produce, since they mass produce in bulk to something like oh 15-20 bucks, to make so you sell more and still get all that gooey money from bulk sales? Then now stay with me on this, lower those prices of those computer programs everyone needs for school from like 2000 bucks(I wish I was kidding about that price on some products it is that high) to you know maybe 100 bucks? So then downloading a hack copy for FREE wouldn't seem so appealing to them..... OMFGWTFBBQ PEOPLE! I just solved at least 75% of all piracy WOW that was EASY!!
Game industry trade group rescinds support for SOPA and PIPA, says it has concerns for "unintended consequences" related to proposals.
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