SOPA Information / GoDaddy Is Immune
At this rate, the “Stop Online Piracy Act” isn’t going to be passed any time soon.
Four hours into the second hearing on the controversial anti-piracy bill, the bill’s primary architect and the hearing’s leader, House Judiciary Committee Chair Lamar Smith (R-TX) admitted temporary defeat, calling a recess at just before 2 pm ET.
At that point, only the first four of about 60 amendments to SOPA had been debated, and only two accepted by lawmakers, including the one Smith himself introduced that would narrow the definitions of websites that could be blocked under the bill. If this pace continues, the markup hearing will last several days.
Ahead of the hearing, Smith released a statement saying the bill had “broad bipartisan support,” but admitted that it could be a lengthy fight to get it passed.
“[W]hile I am hopeful that the bill will be approved on Thursday, the committee is prepared to extend the markup into Friday,” Smith said, Politico reported.
Polis pointed out that SOPA and Smith’s amendment already excluded certain operators of sub-domains, such as GoDaddy.com, from being subject to shutdowns under SOPA.
“If companies like GoDaddy.com are exempt, why aren’t non-commercial domain servers exempt?” Polis asked.
Polis also pointed out that the House’s own sub-domain servers could also be subject to shutdown if they were the accused of copyright infringement.