Two-and-a-half hours after it began at 10 am ET on Thursday, the House’s hearing on the ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’ finally moved on from opening statements and on to voting on amendments.
The first one introduced, by Rep. Steve King (R-IA), sought to amend the manager’s amendment introduced by SOPA author Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) to exclude U.S.-based websites from SOPA’s reach by restricting the definition of what constitutes a “foreign-infringing website.” King quickly withdrew his amendment after several other members raised questions.
The second amendment was introduced by Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), the only member of the committee with actual tech experience, as the founder of American Information Systems.
Polis’s amendment sought to extend SOPA’s exemption of enforcement against commercial ISPs of sub-domains suspected of piracy, such as GoDaddy.com, to universities and other non-profits.
“We already make exemptions for some service providers,” said Polis, “This is no way provides immunity.”
Despite that, several House representatives contested that Polis’s amendment was tantamount to providing immunity for non-profits accused of hosting or allowing pirated content on their servers.
Universities and non-profits “wouldn’t have to make any efforts to take down” pirated content under Polis’s amendment, said Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC). Watt earlier admitted to being an “old fashioned guy,” without much tech experience.
Despite an impassioned round of debate and discussion, including a potent defense from Polis, the members of the House Judiciary Committee voted against the amendment, 23 against and 9 in favor.
Another amendment proposed by Polis to exclude dynamic, roving IP addresses from the bill’s reach, such as those found on printers, was also voted down, 29 against and 4 in favor.
With another 50 amendments or so left to consider, the SOPA hearing seems poised to be a multi-day affair. Smith called a recess at 1:50 ET. Stay tuned.
