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The world would come to know the Internet censorship proposal as the Stop Online Piracy Act, but the key provisions were first introduced as COICA. COICA would have required DNS servers, credit card processors, and ad networks to block access by alleged pirate sites.
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Internet prodigy Aaron Swartz is one of the first to recognize the damaging potential of COICA and begins a petition site called Demand Progress to oppose it. The site grows rapidly and eventually evolves into a 527 organization led by David Segal. It plays a key role in organizing opposition to SOPA. Here, Swartz is speaking out against COICA's successor, the Protect IP Act, in January 2012.
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The new legislation adds search engines like Google to the list of intermediaries who must take steps to block pirate sites. It also creates a "private right of action," allowing private copyright holders, not just the government, the power to seek court orders blocking pirate sites. And it provides private intermediaries with immunity if they decide to take unilateral actions to block pirate sites. PIPA is quickly approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, setting the stage for a vote by the full Senate.
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SOPA is designed to be the House companion to PIPA, but as our headline put it, "House takes Senate's bad Internet censorship bill, tries making it worse." In addition to all the bad ideas in PIPA and COICA, SOPA would have created a new DMCA-style notice-and-takedown regime that would have empowered private copyright holders to demand ad networks and payment processors to block alleged pirate sites without any court oversight at all.
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Led by chairman Lamar Smith, the House Judiciary Committee holds hearings on SOPA. The panel is heavily stacked in favor of the legislation. It includes five supporters plus Google policy counsel Katherine Oyama (pictured) as the token opponent. Critics cry foul about the unbalanced witness list and the failure to hear testimony from any technology experts.
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The House's top Democrat, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), declares her opposition to SOPA on Twitter, saying that her colleagues "need to find a better solution." Two days earlier, libertarian Republican Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) also declares his opposition.
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The House Judiciary Committee holds a "markup" for the Stop Online Piracy Act on December 15. A few months earlier, PIPA had sailed through the Senate Judiciary Committee. But in a sign of growing grassroots opposition, the House markup is contentious, with opponents doing everything they could to delay the proceedings. Shown here is Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), one of the youngest and most tech-savvy members of the committee, who was a key opponent of the legislation. SOPA supporters such as Mel Watt (D-NC) speak derisively about the "nerds" (e.g. technology experts) the committee had not bothered to consult before marking up the legislation. "I’m not a person to argue about the technology of this," Watt says. The opponents seem outnumbered, but they offer so many amendments that Chairman Smith eventually decides to recess for the holidays and resume work on the bill in February 2012.
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Opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act grows on the right hand side of the political spectrum. "I love Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). She is a delightful lady and a solidly conservative member of Congress," writes prominent conservative blogger Eric Erickson (pictured). But he pledges to "do everything in my power to defeat her in her 2012 re-election bid" if she didn't drop her support for SOPA. James Gattuso of the Heritage Foundation, an influential conservative think tank, also announced his opposition to the legislation earlier in December.
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By December, the technology sector is virtually unified in its opposition to SOPA. Even the maximalist Business Software Alliance is expressing reservations. The domain registrar Go Daddy is one of the few technology companies on the record in favor of the legislation. In response, thousands of furious technologists begin transferring their domain names to other registrars and recommending that their clients do likewise. It doesn't take Go Daddy long to get the message and announce it is dropping its support. But many angry protestors declare the reversal hollow and go forward with the previously scheduled "Dump Go Daddy Day" the following week.
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As the new year dawns, Internet activists intensify their efforts to stop SOPA and PIPA. After redditors raise $15,000 to finance a primary challenge to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), he declares his opposition on January 3, 2012. The next week, six Republican Senators write a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asking him to delay a vote on PIPA. "We have increasingly heard from a large number of constituents and other stakeholders with vocal concerns about possible unintended consequences of the proposed legislation," they write. One of the letter's signers is Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), pictured here, who was traditionally considered to be one of the strongest backers of copyright enforcement.
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In response to an online petition, the Obama administration announces that it opposes the DNS filtering provisions of SOPA. "Proposed laws must not tamper with the technical architecture of the Internet through manipulation of the Domain Name System (DNS), a foundation of Internet security," the statement says.
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With momentum against SOPA building, the MPAA tries to backpedal. Speaking at the State of the Net conference, an MPAA spokesman declares the DNS filtering provisions of SOPA "off the table" and insists that debate should go forward on the other, less controversial provisions of the legislation. The move proves to be too little, too late. Shown here is MPAA chairman and former Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT).
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Thousands of websites across the Internet go dark in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act. The most prominent is Wikipedia, which replaces almost all pages with a notice urging readers to call their members of Congress. The notice gets 162 million pageviews. Google, reddit, and other major sites also join the protest. Google says it generated 7 million signatures against SOPA. Here at Ars Technica, we devoted every article we published to the SOPA debate.
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The online protest triggers an avalanche of calls and emails. Spooked members of Congress rush to distance themselves from the legislation. In the Senate, 16 Republicans and 3 Democrats—including several former co-sponsors—declare their opposition to PIPA. Dozens of House members also declare their opposition.Illustration by Aurich Lawson
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Candidates in the race for the Republican presidential nomination hold a debate on January 19. Ron Paul is already on the record opposing SOPA, but Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum all declare their opposition at the debate. "You're asking a conservative about the economic interests of Hollywood," Newt Gingrich says. "I favor freedom."
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Shell-shocked leaders in both houses of Congress announce that they are indefinitely suspending consideration of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act.Aurich Lawson
Listing image by Aurich Lawson
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