The Philippine Online Chronicles

SOPA, PIPA withdrawn

Days after the massive online protest against anti-piracy bills Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), congressional voting on the controversial bills have been postponed indefinitely.

Last January 18, major online sites and companies staged an online blackout in opposition to the said measures that could lead to censorship of the Internet. Online encyclopedia Wikipedia, led the 24-hour blackout by posting a black banner on its page that read - “Imagine a world without free knowledge.”

Among the sites that joined the protest were social news website Reddit, Mozilla, BoingBoing and Firefox. Google participated in the action by blacking out the Google logo and included a link for more information. According to anti-SOPA organizers, at least 75,000 websites temporarily went dark that day, including 25,000 blogs.

Facebook and Twitter did not join the online blackout. Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo tweeted: "Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish."

On the day of the online protest, at least six senators who had co-sponsored the Senate legislation reversed their positions, according to Associated Press. House Speaker John Boehner stressed that more consensus-building was needed before the legislation would be ready for a vote.

US Senate majority leader Harry Reid said his panel will delay the scheduled vote on the controversial bill aimed at cracking down online piracy. He added, “in light of recent events, I have decided to postspone the vote on Protect IP Act. There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved.”

In the US House of Representatives, House Judiciary Committee followed suit. Rep. Lamar Alexander Smith announced that he was postponing consideration of the bill in light of concerns from critics who said it could lead to censorship of the Internet.

"I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy," he said in a statement. "It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products."

The massive online actions against PIPA and SOPA last week included email campaigns that reportedly reached 3 million messages, television and print ads in major states, and massive lobbying efforts to congressional offices in Washington.

According to NetCoalition, Google solicited 7 million signatures on a petition opposing the bills. Craigslist counted 30,000 phone calls to lawmakers and there were 3.9 million tweets on Twitter about the bills.

Megaupload busted

In a related news, Kim Dotcom (aka Kim Schmitz), founder of Megaupload.com, one of the world's largest file-sharing site, was arrested by authorities in New Zeland over the weekend.

Schmitz, along with three employees, were arrested based on U.S. accusations that they facilitated millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation requested the raid and said Dotcom masterminded a scheme that made more than $175 million in a few short years by copying and distributing music, movies and other copyrighted content without authorization.

Police raided the homes and businesses linked to Dotcom and seized guns, millions of dollars and nearly $5 million in luxury cars, officials in Auckland, New Zealand said.

The action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States and directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime.

According to reuters.com, Dotcom, a former hacker, has built an internet fortune and friendship with music superstars including Alicia Keys, Will.i.am and P.Diddy who appeared on the Megaupload.com promo video.

Meanwhile, online file-sharing site FileSonic, has disabled its public file-sharing service, in response to the federal shutdown of Megaload.com. FileSonic announced that it has now turned into a personal digital locker service.

Blackberry CEOs resign

Research In Motion's (RIM) Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have bowed to investor pressure and resigned as co-CEOs at the struggling smartphone company. This ends the two-decade partnership of Lazaridis and Balsillie in Blackberry now struggles against Apple and Google.

Lazaridis said in a statement, "There comes a time in the growth of every successful company when the founders recognize the need to pass the baton to new leadership."

He said RIM was "entering a new phase, and we felt it was time for a new leader to take it through that phase and beyond."

Stepping up as CEO is Thorsten Heins, a former Siemens AG executive joined the Canadian company in late 2007. Barbara Stymiest, 55, was named chairman of the board, a post previously also held jointly by Balsillie and Lazaridis.