Senator Reid Pulled PIPA Vote From Calendar: Not Out of Woods Yet!
I received a message on my FB page this morning from NY Senator Charles Schumer. "You've been heard. PIPA has been pulled so we can find a better solution." When I returned in the early afternoon and checked again, this was on his page.
"I say to New York’s tech community: we have heard you. Senator Reid’s decision to pull a vote on PIPA from the Senate calendar is the right one and will allow Congress to work with stakeholders to craft a better solution that protects against piracy and doesn’t do anything to damage our dynamic tech community or freedom of expression on the Internet. I am hopeful that both sides of this debate will come together to find a consensus solution that protects American jobs threatened by illegal piracy and at the same time encourages the growth of New York’s vibrant and growing technology and Internet communities."
I checked my e-mails. One was from Demand Progress, an organization that has been working 24/7 to mobilize support against the SOPA/PIPA legislation and whose leaders understood early on how egregious the impact of the legislation would be to Tech entrepreneurs and innovators and enterprises. This is from the e-mail I received.
"Wow. We just won!" The Associated Press just announced that "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he was postponing a test vote set for Tuesday 'n light of recent events.'"
Demand Progress has been fighting this legislation for more than a year, having grown from nothing to over one million members during that period.
It is indeed amazing what can be accomplished by individuals who recognize the sub rosa nullification of freedoms we all have come to enjoy and take for granted. It is indeed wonderful to witness first hand how the internet can bring individuals together for a just cause, especially when we acknowledge in the last five years how countries like China, Yemen and Saudia Arabia have allowed DNS filters to censor social media and other internet sites. That is a threat we cannot even tolerate the thought of and the specter of such a threat looming over the internet is why people took a stand and made a difference.
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