The Stop Online Piracy Act: the SOPA story so far

Inside Hollywood's failed SOPA efforts — and a glimmer of hope

The Hollywood Reporter offers a fresh account of events surrounding the collapse of SOPA / PIPA legislation in Congress. Separately, an EMI executive states that he believes lawmakers chose the "wrong method" in drafting the bills.

SOPA tabled by Rep. Lamar Smith, for now

It looks like Wednesday's SOPA Blackout Day should be considered a success: Reuters is reporting that the Stop Online Piracy Act has been withdrawn by its chief sponsor, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith.

Senator Reid delays PIPA vote as backlash mounts

Senator Harry Reid has announced that next Tuesday's vote on the Protect-IP Act has been canceled, but that doesn't mean the bill is close to dead.

MPAA chairman Chris Dodd expresses regret over pro-SOPA strategy, calls for compromise

Former senator and current MPAA chairman Chris Dodd has expressed surprise over the level of protest over SOPA, but acknowledged that the bill was derailed by a slow timeline and a public image based around Hollywood.

Neelie Kroes, VP of the European Commission, speaks out against SOPA

A number of politicians have started withdrawing support for SOPA and PIPA, and the bills now even being criticized by politicians from abroad. Neelie Kroes, VP of the European Commission, tweeted today that she was "glad [the] tide is turning on #SOPA; don't need bad legislation when should be safeguarding benefits of open net."

US Senate websites hit with technical difficulties following SOPA blackout

It looks like the SOPA blackout day has encouraged many citizens to get out and email their senators to voice their disapproval. If you head over to the US Senate's home page and reach this list of senators, many (if not all) of the "contact" links are currently returning a "technical difficulties" message.

Former senator and MPAA CEO Chris Dodd speaks out against SOPA blackouts

The MPAA has taken notice of the many websites blacking out their content today in protest of SOPA, and thinks these companies would be better off supporting efforts to combat piracy rather than protesting.

Why The Verge and Vox Media are opposed to SOPA

Vox Media and The Verge believe SOPA is overbroad, dangerous to the technical operation of the internet, and will ultimately cost us more in compliance costs than it might save by "protecting" our work. It's a bad law, and we think it needs to be stopped.

The SOPA blackout: Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla, Google, and many others protest proposed law

Two new laws proposed by US legislators, the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, have been attracting a very negative reaction from the web community over the past couple of months, which is today culminating in a day of protests.

Microsoft says it opposes SOPA

Microsoft announces it opposes SOPA as currently drafted, hours before a Wikipedia blackout.

Wikipedia plans 24-hour blackout this Wednesday to protest SOPA / PIPA

Wikipedia will be shutting down all its English-language sites for a full 24 hours in protest of both SOPA and PIPA legislation. The blackout starts Wednesday at midnight ET. The pages will reportedly be replaced with a call to action for people to write and call Congress - Wales says he hopes to "melt phone systems" in Washington.

Rupert Murdoch takes on Obama, SOPA, Google, and high popcorn prices on Twitter

Rupert Murdoch blasts SOPA, Google, and Obama on Twitter

White House raises concern over DNS-blocking bills; House tables SOPA vote until 'consensus' is reached

Today the Obama Administration issued a statement on the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect-IP Act, in response to two online petitions opposing the bills — the White House says that while it still supports anti-piracy efforts, it "will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet."

Rep. Lamar Smith plans to remove DNS blocking from SOPA

SOPA author Lamar Smith defends bill, questions critics' credibility

US Representative Lamar Smith, who authored the Stop Online Privacy Act, has defended the bill and accused its critics of making money from foreign sites that infringe copyright.

Under pressure, PIPA author to propose 'further study' on DNS blocking

Under mounting pressure, PIPA's author — Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont — says that "further study" is needed to identify the positive and negative effects of the bill before it reaches a vote on January 24th.

Riot Games anti-SOPA forum thread sparks support from Congressman Jared Polis

Riot Games has publicly denounced the SOPA and PIPA bills, using its social pages to incite protests to the government from its users.

Comcast kills DNS rerouting to protect DNSSEC, while it continues to push for SOPA's DNS blocking

Reddit plans January 18 blackout to oppose SOPA

Some opponents of the Stop Online Piracy Act have wondered if any of the larger websites would conduct service "blackouts," and now one major player is set to shutter its doors: Reddit says that it will be blacking out the popular content sharing website on January 18th from 8AM to 8PM EST.

RIAA calls online piracy a threat to national security

RIAA Senior Executive VP Mitch Glazier has written a blog post criticizing OPEN, and suggesting that the ITC is unable to work at the necessary speed to take down copyright-infringing websites.

Ron Paul blasts SOPA on the 2012 presidential campaign trail

Ron Paul speaks out on SOPA

GoDaddy accused of dragging feet on domain transfers, says there's nothing unusual going on

Users of domain registrar Namecheap who've been trying to transfer domains in from GoDaddy in the wake of its SOPA revolt in the past couple days have been running into a bit of a speed bump: Namecheap alleges in customer service emails that GoDaddy is blocking its WHOIS requests, which means it needs to "manually insert WHOIS details into the form."

SOPA: the public debate

The Stop Online Piracy Act has generated a load of controversy, and we're bringing you up to speed on the conversation.

GoDaddy withdraws SOPA support in face of massive protests

Internet domain registrar GoDaddy just announced it will no longer support the controversial SOPA legislation after being threatened with a massive boycott from users who oppose the bill.

What is SOPA and how does it work? The Stop Online Piracy Act explained