Awesome! U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) announced today that the House Judiciary Committee, which he heads, “will postpone consideration of the legislation until there is wider agreement on a solution.” Smith added that he has taken critics’ concerns “seriously.” “It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the […]
Just got home from a day of running errands and saw this: The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it has conducted a major action to shut down MegaUpload, a popular file-sharing site widely used for free downloads of movies and television shows. After receiving indictments from a grand jury in Virginia for racketeering conspiracy, […]
Yesterday’s anti-SOPA blackout was effective: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) withdrew as a co-sponsor of the Protect IP Act in the Senate, while Reps. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) and Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.) said they were pulling their names from the companion House bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act. Opponents of the legislation, led by large Internet companies, […]
Looks like he very well could be: US Congressman and poor-toupee-color-chooser Lamar Smith is the guy who authored the Stop Online Piracy Act. SOPA, as I’m sure you know, is the shady bill that will introduce way harsher penalties for companies and individuals caught violating copyright laws online (including making the unauthorized streaming of copyrighted […]
I guess not: A top House Republican is planning to propose that Internet service providers be required to store information about their customers to aid police in criminal investigations, CNET has learned. But a recent draft has one huge exception: wireless companies aren’t included. That appears to be the result of lobbying from wireless providers, […]
In a big OOPS, Raw Story as acquired a confidential memo on immigration from Rep. Lamar Smith’s office. The letter was intended to be faxed to Karl Rove but instead got faxed to Democratic Congressman. Go over to Raw Story and check out the actual memo.