[Foundation-l] just wondering, are we going to take down en.wikipedia.org?

[Mike Godwin]

Dan Collins writes:

> Hey guys,
>
> http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/204167-sopa-shelved-until-consensus-is-found
>
> The House decided they're going to stop bothering with this bill for a
> while, so while we should continue to think about what we will do when
> the time comes to protest this, that time is not right now. The bill
> can be reconsidered just as it was left off any time before the end of
> this congressional session, and the Senate still has a live bill, but
> the fact that HR 3261 is not being considered at the moment means that
> even if the Senate passes their bill, the House may refuse to consider
> that one too.

Dan, you're misreading the implications of what the story you link to
says. What's actually happening is that the House sponsors hope to
defuse opposition by delaying and slightly modifying SOPA. My
experience as a DC lawyer for much of my career strongly suggests that
there's no reason to suspend expressions of opposition to SOPA or PIPA
or the general effort by content companies to change the internet as
we know it. In my view, it is wholly incorrect to say "that time is
not right now."  Anything that the legislators can interpret as a lack
of resolve from the internet communities will encourage them to
resubmit SOPA or its equivalent in another form. The time for
protesting this is, in fact, right now.


--Mike