The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) are dead, and they are never ever ever getting back together. That was the message delivered by MPAA chairman and former Senator Chris Dodd on Wednesday.
Speaking to Wired, the former Senator said those particular bills will never again appear on the congressional floor. In no uncertain terms, Dodd said the “that legislation is gone. It’s over. It’s not coming back.”
Dodd says most US internet providers have already agreed on anti-piracy measures that ask ISPs to impose “mitigation measures” that have yet to be properly defined. Under the new rules of engagement, ISPS will take certain actions against copyrighted material including the reduction of connectivity speed and a redirection of a subscriber’s search or query to a landing page discussing copyright infringement.
Unlike SOPA and PIPA, the new agreed upon rules do not require a reworking of internet protocols, which means they will be potentially easier to enact based on an ISPs own choice in restriction based technologies.
Dodd also took a moment to praise search giant Google for its changing search engine algorithm which reduces the ranking placement (SERP) for websites that provide a large amount of copyright infringing search results. According to Dodd :
“That’s exactly the type of efforts we need … It didn’t require a law to pass. Getting that type of cooperation is important.”
SOPA and PIPA were hugely contested by the likes of Google, Wikipedia, and various other groups, which ultimately led to their demise via an outpouring of public opposition by the masses.
So there you have it: SOPA and PIPA are dead, although they are likely to arrive back in congress one day, albeit it under very different names.
