A report has surfaced saying that the MPAA is lobbying to have the sequel of SOPA in place by 2013. This comes as a result of comments made by Chris Dodd.
Note: This is an article I wrote that was published elsewhere first. It has been republished here for archival purposes
SOPA may have been the one bill that united the entire internet, sparked unprecedented outrage and aroused a whole new level of awareness for how the US government is trying to control the Internet. Never before did the Internet protested the way it had with major websites like WikiPedia, Reddit and, well, almost a who’s who list of every major website that showed some form of opposition to the legislation. We here at ZeroPaid were a part of that decisive bit of history in protesting the legislation that would have forever altered and destabilized the Internet as we knew it. The opposition was so fierce, the US government was forced to shelve the controversial legislation. While there may have been a period where people were relieved that the Internet was saved, this period may be coming to a close.
The Daily Dot is reporting that the MPAA is hoping to have a sort of SOPA 2.0 put together by 2013. From the report:
Dodd, the CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America—Hollywood’s lobbying arm, as well as a major proponent and lobbying agent for SOPA—was quoted Saturday referencing his eagerness to directly lobby Congress for a new copyright bill on the MPAA’s behalf.
“I can’t say anything to them about this for another seven months, but I think my colleagues understand how important this is,” he said in an interview with Variety.
Dodd has to wait until January to personally lobby members of Congress. For 30 years, until he assumed leadership of the MPAA in 2011, he was a U.S. Senator from Connecticut. Ethics regulations prohibit him from making deals with Washington until two years after his departure.
The only other hint Dodd left about the next SOPA is that the MPAA will no longer try and equate Web piracy with physical theft, a notion widely mocked online.
“We’re going to have to be more subtle and consumer-oriented,” he said. “We’re on the wrong track if we describe this as thievery.”
The source of this comes from an article on Variety which also comments:
He said Saturday that the industry will need to take a far more nuanced approach to promoting future antipiracy legislation.
“We’re going to have to be more subtle and consumer-oriented,” he added. “We’re on the wrong track if we describe this as thievery.”
Dodd retired early last year from three decades in the U.S. Senate, so he’s precluded from lobbying his colleagues on industry issues on Capitol Hill until January.
“I can’t say anything to them about this for another seven months, but I think my colleagues understand how important this is,” he said.
It’s pretty easy to see how one can interpret this as an indication of not only that a new piece of legislation is coming, but also gives a vague timeline.
I suspect a little too much was said here, but it is a good indication that few lessons may have been learned. I mean, its easy to argue that the DMCA in its original form when passed was not consumer oriented, but by today’s standards, that is, frighteningly enough, fair on both sides by comparison. At this point, I have yet to see a three strikes policy or a censorship policy that is even remotely close to striking any sort of balance. It’s always been a sort of “big legacy multinational corporations first, everyone else last” approach. The only thing that has stopped some of these sorts of policies were judicial or constitutional safeguards put in place for the purposes of preventing abusive laws.
One thing I can pretty much guarantee in this though is that if SOPA 2.0 appears in 2013, f it simply fails to strike any sort of balance, and if it is just as dangerous as before, the Internet will stand up much like what happened in the previous iteration of SOPA that was so handily defeated by the people before.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Google+.
