infoJustice

Today Rep. Lamar Smith Announced he will remove the DNS blocking provisions in the Stop Online Piracy Act.

His statement: “After consultation with industry groups across the country, I feel we should remove Domain Name System blocking from the Stop Online Piracy Act so that the Committee can further examine the issues surrounding this provision. We will continue to look for ways to ensure that foreign websites cannot sell and distribute illegal content to U.S. consumers.” 

Yesterday, Sen. Leahy released a statement saying that he would introduce a manager’s amendment to the PROTECT-IP Act, and would study the DNS blocking provisions: “I and the bill’s cosponsors have continued to hear concerns about the Domain Name provision from engineers, human rights groups, and others.  I have also heard from a number of Vermonters on this important issue.  I remain confident that the ISPs – including the cable industry, which is the largest association of ISPs – would not support the legislation if its enactment created the problems that opponents of this provision suggest.  Nonetheless, this is in fact a highly technical issue, and I am prepared to recommend we give it more study before implementing it.” (Also see Public Knowledge’s response.)

As controversy over SOPA and PROTECT-IP has grown, many experts have warned against the unintended consequences of DNS blocking in these bills.  Earlier this week, Rep. Issa announced a January 18 hearing on “the potential impact of Domain Name Service (DNS) and search engine blocking on American cyber-security, jobs and the Internet community.”