White House Kills Support For SOPA
The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has already responded to petitions protesting SOPA or the Stop Online Piracy Act. The note said that the administration is aware of foreign website’s online piracy and the serious problems it may bring but they are not in favor of the legislation’s response against the issue. They say that they will not support SOPA because it will affect freedom of expression, weakens the advancement and efficiency of the world wide web and increases risk for cyber security. In addition, SOPA speaks off censorship, may ask additional requirements from online businesses, and may cause some technological problems.
Representatives of internet sites such as twitter, Google, facebook, and others have voiced out their opinions on SOPA. They claim that it will reveal and demand United States’ internet and technology companies to consistently monitor websites making them liable and authoritative.
The statement issued by the White House points out that they support anti-piracy steps, it’s just that they found some weakness on SOPA. They stress out the issue on censorship, cyber security risks and internet structure. Originally, SOPA propose blocking of websites that will be found hosting of illegal contents. It was the most arguable part of the proposal but was deserted by Rep. Lamar Smith, the author of SOPA.
The White House recommends that everybody should work together to create an effective and intelligent bill this year for government and public to be able to fight online piracy from other countries without affecting the issues that were raised. The White House, also, will conduct a talk with the organizers of the bill and the signers of the petition via a conference call to talk about the matter with admin officials. They are also preparing an online event to gather more information, answer queries and provide details about events coming.
In the meantime, a rally for the anti SOPA is scheduled on Wednesday (ET and day) at New York. Reddit and Tucows and other online services will join the SOPA protest.