On Jan. 13th, 2012, David Kravets wrote for Wired on SOPA and PIPA, the controversial legislation designed to fight online copyright infringement. There has been fierce resistance to the legislation because many feel that it would limit the internet's freedom and compromise the DNS (the naming system that underlies the internet). According to the article, Rep. Lamar Smith (the sponsor of SOPA) decided to remove the provision that would force ISPs to perform DNS redirects of "sites the attorney general concludes are facilitating online copyright and trademark infringement." The DNS blocking provision was one of the more controversial provisions in the legislation.
The article notes that PIPA, SOPA's cousin in the Senate, could receive a full floor vote soon. SOPA, on the other hand, has yet to make it out of committee.
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On Jan. 14th, 2012, Catharine Smith reported for the Huffington Post that even the White House has come out against SOPA/PIPA. Calling the legislation the "E-PARASITE Act", Obama administration members (including Howard Schmidt) said that "the White House will not support legislation that disrupts the open standards of the Internet."
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On Jan. 11th, 2012, John Fontana wrote for ZDNet on the implications of SOPA/PIPA's passage for NSTIC. NSTIC is an "identity ecosystem" initiative that seeks to transition from passwords to stronger identity credentials (like a cell phone). Fontana writes that SOPA/PIPA could poison NSTIC's "burgeoning identity infrastructure" through the use of DNS blocking.
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On Jan. 13th, 2012, Stephen Chapman wrote for ZDNet on the upcoming SOPA protests. Committee hearings on SOPA are going to resume Jan. 18th. On that day, look for self-imposed blackouts by your favorite websites. These websites are using the blackouts to send a message regarding SOPA/PIPA and internet censorship. Reddit will be offline from 8am-8pm on Jan. 18th. Wikipedia previously blacked out its site in protest. According to the article, many want Facebook and Google to join the party in order to create maximum awareness. Moreover, the article notes that WordPress has created a SOPA plugin which blacks out your own blog.
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