It's taken some time and pressure, but fortunately the White House is finally coming around to the problems of SOPA. The movie and music industry may donate a lot of cash to Obama, but there are many more voters out there who strongly dislike SOPA and PIPA.
White House officials raised concerns on Saturday about online piracy legislation pending in Congress that Google and Facebook have decried as heavy-handed and Hollywood studios and music labels say is needed to save U.S. jobs. In a blog posting, three advisers to President Barack Obama said they believed the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and other bills could make businesses on the Internet vulnerable to litigation and harm legal activity and free speech. "Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small," said the officials, including White House cyber-security czar Howard Schmidt.Whether the White House holds firm on their objections is another issue. It's an election year, so either option is possible.
