KRISTIN MELODY
STAFF WRITER

Recent protests online by websites and individuals have caused Congress to delay the vote regarding internet privacy and intellectual property rights.

The two major acts in the spotlight are the U.S. House of Representatives’ Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the U.S. Senate’s Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PIPA).

SOPA seeks to take legal action or shut down “U.S.-directed foreign Internet site[s] committing or facilitating online piracy… including criminal copyright infringement, unauthorized fixation and trafficking of sound recordings or videos of live musical performances, the recording of exhibited motion pictures, or trafficking in counterfeit labels, goods, or services” the bill summary states.

The due course of action available to the Attorney General is to censor the website that commits copyright infringement rather than remove the infringed material and allow the website to continue to function.

The PIPA and SOPA acts are supported by the media industry, musical recording companies and Hollywood video producers. The opponents of PIPA and SOPA include YouTube, Wikipedia, the 4.5 million people who signed Google’s anti-SOPA petition, 1.5 million people on activists’ websites, and 103,785 signed the We The People petition according to The White House blog.

On January 18 websites Wikipedia, Reddit and others “blacked out” for 24 hours in protest of the SOPA and PIPA bills.

“As a consequence of failing to act, there will continue to be a safe haven for foreign thieves; American jobs will continue to be lost; and consumers will continue to be exposed to fraudulent and dangerous products peddled by foreign criminals” said Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman of Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

“Online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cyber security risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet” said Victoria Espinel, the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator for The White House.

The House of Representatives SOPA act is due to resume voting in February according to the leader of the bill House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX).

President Obama publicly opposed the bill because he believes it would hinder business and lead to online censorship.