Congress withdraws SOPA, PIPA anti-piracy measures

The controversial legislation will be withheld for ‘wider agreement’

U.S. lawmakers stopped anti-piracy legislation in its tracks on Friday, delivering a stunning win for Internet companies that staged an unprecedented online protest this week to kill the previously fast-moving bills.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said he would postpone a critical vote that had been scheduled for Jan. 24 “in light of recent events.”

Lamar Smith, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, followed suit, saying his panel would delay action on similar legislation until there is wider agreement on the issue.

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What are SOPA and PIPA?

SOPA and PIPA represent two bills in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate respectively. SOPA is short for the “Stop Online Piracy Act,” and PIPA is an acronym for the “Protect IP Act.” (“IP” stands for “intellectual property.”) In short, these bills are efforts to stop copyright infringement committed by foreign web sites, but, in my opinion, they do so in a way that actually infringes free expression while harming the Internet.

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I try very hard not to editorialize in the pages of GYM MOMENTUM. I save those tirades for another blog or possibly my stand up comedy routine. So please excuse me but this is a subject the effects all gymnastics educational websites.

How will this effect GYM MOMENTUM and other gymnastics educational websites?

The gymnastics community is largely a pretty well educated technical community. We may not know how a website works but we aren’t afraid of our computers and using them to get more information. The writers of these bills do not seem to have a basic understanding of the technical aspects of the internet.

How could SOPA and PIPA hurt GYM MOMENTUM?

SOPA and PIPA are a threat to GYM MOMENTUM and other gymnastics educational websites in many ways. For example, in its current form, SOPA would require all of us to actively monitor every site we link to, to ensure it doesn’t host infringing content. Any link to an infringing site could put us in jeopardy of being forced offline. Although I enjoy working on GYM MOMENTUM – I own 2 gymnastics clubs, run a gymnastics camp, lecture all through the USA and in many other countries, try to do stand up comedy when I get a chance, and I have a family! I do not have time to be an internet police man.

Does this mean that GYM MOMENTUM violates copyright laws, or hosting pirated content?

I have always asked for permission and will continue to ask for permission before I have posted anything that was not my material. BUT- if the person I asked a person for permission and they had taken the material from some one else, GYM MOMENTUM could be taken down. All it takes is a COMPLAINT against GYM MOMENTUM for the site to be taken down. I have heard this compared to banning all cars because one may be used in a bank robbery.

I think it would is important that SOPA is blocked. Otherwise many of the gymnastics educational websites will look like this.

This was just my opinion. Now, back to gymnastics.