PIPA Bill: Mitch McConnell Calls For Legislation To Be Shelved

WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urged Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Thursday to nix an upcoming vote on Protect IP, a major anti-piracy bill that Internet experts warn poses grave dangers to the Web's functionality.

Reid, who formally supports the bill, said on Sunday that he would proceed with a vote on a revised version despite a public statement of opposition from the White House a day earlier.

"While we must combat the on-line theft of intellectual property, current proposals in Congress raise serious legal, policy and operational concerns," McConnell said in a statement. "Rather than prematurely bringing the Protect IP Act to the Senate floor, we should first study and resolve the serious issues with this legislation. Considering this bill without first doing so could be counterproductive to achieving the shared goal of enacting appropriate and additional tools to combat the theft of intellectual property. I encourage the Senate majority to reconsider its decision to proceed to this bill."

The bill lost several prominent supporters, including many original co-sponsors, on Wednesday, amid high-profile online protests in which major websites Wikipedia, reddit and others blocked access to their content. Nevertheless, opponents had continued to worry they did not have the votes to prevent the bill from coming up for a vote.

McConnell spokesman Don Stewart stopped short of issuing a filibuster threat, when asked if McConnell's opposition indicated that Republicans would prevent the bill from coming up for a vote on the Senate floor.

"It’s an encouragement to withdraw the bill while they study and resolve the serious issues in the bill," Stewart said. "There seems to be bipartisan support for that point of view."

A request for comment from Democratic leadership was not immediately returned.

Protect IP and its House companion, SOPA, would grant the government and corporations broad powers to shut down Web sites they believe are engaged in copyright infringement -- without a trial or a traditional court hearing. Internet experts warn that the tactics deployed in these Web site take-downs would endanger cybersecurity and the technical functioning of the Web. Supporters of the legislation, which include Hollywood movie studios and major record labels, have insisted the measures are necessary to combat online piracy.

Sam Stein contributed reporting.

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Comments

[Derrick Daniel]

04:17 PM on 01/22/2012

Mitch McConnell : Needs to retire and get out of the way of the progress that this country needs the most I am sick and tired of listening at all of the lies that the Republican Party is telling the people of this country they need to grow up and start acting like the adults that they are suppose to be.

I do not understand why the people of this country want to lead the way that they are acting for this president to be honest with every one there reads this comment I am not a prejudice person but it makes me wonder if all of these individuals that are willing to listen at all of the lies from the Republican Party when you know for yourself this president inherited most of these problems from the last administration but I guess you have forgotten about that and now you want to put all of the blame for this president I think that's you individuals are a poor excuse. And you call yourselves Christians I begin to wonder have you ever if that the bible been read it.

[Trapezoid]

01:08 PM on 01/20/2012

The power to block websites "suspected or believed" to be in violation of copyright laws is a slippery slope. We don't need to go there. Legitimate websites operate in the open and are already susceptible to legal action. Rogue websites are known to operate from unknown locations in the USA, foreign countries and off-shore locations. Nevertheless, there is no compelling need to render legitimate websites susceptible to arbitrary censorship.

To my knowledge, there is no procedure in place for the "registration" of legitimate websites. Rogue websites will of course refuse registration for the same reason counterfeiters and moonshiners do not publish their physical location. Is it not reasonable to require a websites to register as a website for the same reason that a corporation is required to register as corporation? Voluntary registration would be a sure way to identify rogue websites.

[EdinFL]

11:20 AM on 01/20/2012

Both folded rather fast. It's the first thing they have agreed on since 1953. And they both need to be made part of history, term limits !!!

[Phil Van Voorhis]

10:22 AM on 01/20/2012

Game. Set. Match!

[Sammmo]

09:49 AM on 01/20/2012

Now, Mitch, how about the Keystone Pipeline? It should require more intensive study ...too!

[chadizzy]

10:00 AM on 01/20/2012

3 years is plenty of time to study!

[centsable]

11:03 AM on 01/20/2012

One governor says it would cause harm to his state....and he's a republican governor.

[ElleKaye]

12:41 PM on 01/20/2012

Plenty of time? Only if they come to understand what they're studying. It's a lot less hassle to simply sell a vote to a lobbiest rather than really taking time to realize all the ramifications of that vote. More lucrative, too. Politics or governance? Such a difficult decision to make!

[Sammmo]

09:47 AM on 01/20/2012

OMG, did he get more botox?
Mitch, thought you liked the idea of limiting free speech , rights and liberties....?

[scotsg8r]

09:39 AM on 01/20/2012

PIPA / SOPA must be rejected as singularly poor legislation. Most people would reject piracy and copyright theft (illegal music / video / programs downloads) and be happy enough for legislators to do something about it. But the implementation of these bills would be akin to opening an egg with a bazooka - overkill indeed (Shock & Awe??).

There is the notion of "Fair Use" in copyright law that MUST be addressed. Fair use allows the use of the copyright protected work for commentary, parody, news reporting, research and education. This in turn is tempered by considerations whether the copier stands to make any money / profit from the copy, the "nature" of the copy (fidelity to the original), the % of the totality of the copyrighted work used and whether the use of the copy detracts from the monetary "value" of the protected work.

Applied to Youtube postings, no-one uploading anything is making money, dependent on use the informational fidelity can be questionable (altho' the video fidelity will ALWAYS be low), the totality of the work is variable (altho' clips in YT are mostly limited to 10 mins) and I would argue that not one of these Youtube copies detracts from the monetary value of the protected work (mostly on the premise of clip length and limited video quality).

Any new legislative effort should center around eliminating trading of illegal copies of high fidelity (video / music mostly) content and cracked / hacked software - this is where the

[Jced]

09:38 AM on 01/20/2012

Time for Mitch to get his Gold Watch and box of Depends! Bye, Bye Mitch!!!

[Talk2PassiveActionVital]

12:41 PM on 01/20/2012

not time for mcconnell to shuffle off until PIPA (and SOPA) are good and dead.

[jbon911647]

09:33 AM on 01/20/2012

Use the current laws on the books, stop growing the size of government, stop giving up our freedom.

Wake up America and vote all these fools out in November.

[centsable]

11:04 AM on 01/20/2012

Technology moves faster than the congress does.

[Derni]

09:32 AM on 01/20/2012

would he say publicly the same thing about the PIPELINE?? Shelf it?

[jbon911647]

09:30 AM on 01/20/2012

Mitch and Harry both have to go.
Remember in November.

[MekhongKurt]

11:15 PM on 01/22/2012

Well, I would settle for McConnell to resign, right now, and never be sighted again. Just as the Democrats do when they are in the minority in the Senate, the Republicans have very effectively blocked the working of government, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch "My One Goal Is To Make Obama a One-Term President" McConnell.

[PathofTotality]

09:30 AM on 01/20/2012

""Rather than prematurely bringing the Protect IP Act to the Senate floor, we should first study and resolve the serious issues with this legislation"

Wait........what? Politicians don't read these and think about them before vote regardless?

[MekhongKurt]

11:19 PM on 01/22/2012

Not quite, PathofTotality. What it actual means is something like this: "Let's wait until the storm blows over then late one Friday night, early Sunday morning, or late Sunday night, sneak into session sand pass the bill, so our masters won't yank our choke- chains."

[PathofTotality]

10:33 AM on 01/23/2012

HAHAHAHA.............nice

[authorized-user]

08:40 AM on 01/20/2012

This legislation was introduced to see how many GOP'rs would rise to take the bait and ally themselves with their arch rivals in hollywood.

[chadizzy]

10:01 AM on 01/20/2012

The reason it was shelved is because Hollywood ripped the dems last night!

[Unabashed Liberal]

07:58 AM on 01/20/2012

PIPA is not so much about protecting intellectual property rights as it is about protecting profits. Call your Congressman. Let him know.

[MekhongKurt]

11:33 PM on 01/22/2012

U.L., a minor point. Though all Representatives and Senators are members of the Congress, the title "Congressman/Congresswoman" has traditionally been used to address Representatives, not Senators. PIPA is a Senate monstrosity, so people should pour the heat on their Senators regarding it. The companion Frankenstein in the House is SOPA, the bill about which to contact our Congress Critter.

Of course, we can tell all three we vehemently oppose both and are informing all three of our elected representatives in Congress of that fact.

[cyberfringe]

07:57 AM on 01/20/2012

Reid's strategy is interesting. Don't pay attention to what you read. That is all smoke. Obama said he would veto the Senate bill, and now it looks like it would even fail to get enough votes. So why bring it to a vote? Because you can say you did. Having voted and failed to pass the legislation, Reid can then avoid future pressure on such a bill by saying "Been there done that - the American people don't want it. ". SOPA and PIP will be old news.