The war of words over proposed online piracy bills heated up on Monday after some remarks by Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt stating that the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) would "criminalize linking and the fundamental structure of the Internet itself."
Not long after Google Chairman Schmidt made his remarks while in Washington, The Motion Picture Association of America, one of the supporters of more restrictive online piracy laws fired back with their comments. MPAA senior executive vice president for global policy and external affairs Michael O’Leary stated, "Today, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt again engaged in sky is falling rhetoric in attacking important legislation that targets criminals who profit from online piracy and counterfeiting."
While Google and the MPAA were jabbing back and forth, The House Judiciary Committee was working on a series of changes to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) on Monday and scheduled a markup of the controversial legislation for Thursday morning.
Another web power joining in on the discussion on Monday was popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia as founder Jimmy Wales said he may temporarily blank out its pages in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). This would be similar to the actions taken by several websites a few weeks ago who blocked portions of their websites to protest what they call online censorship that would take place if SOPA became law.
Bombarded by acronyms and plans
While the internet powers battle the government for how much regulation is too much, the average web surfer is bombarded by all the acronyms surrounding the plans.
The Senate version known as Protect IP has taken a back seat lately as the House bill known as SOPA has been stealing the headlines.
The Protect IP Act (S.968) as it is known in the US Senate, and Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R.3261) as it has been proposed in the US House, both hope to tackle internet piracy.
Opponents of SOPA in Congress lead by Senator Ron Wyden (Oregon Democrat) and House Oversight chairman Darrell Issa (California Republican) have unveiled a competing proposal, dubbed the OPEN Act, OPEN: Online Protection & ENforcement of Digital Trade Act. Wyden and Issa are hoping that their proposal can be used as a vehicle for compromise in what has so far been a heated debate.
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