SOPA and PIPA update

There is quite a bit of vocal opposition to the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) making its way through the House of Representatives and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) making its way through the Senate. The opposition seems to have had an effect. I blogged about the bills late last year.
CNet reported today that the DNS provision was pulled from SOPA. This resolves one, but certainly not the only problem with SOPA. Also today, OpenCongress.org posted a letter from 6 co-sponsors of the Senate bill to Majority Leader Reid asking him to cancel the vote on PIPA.
Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to make their voice heard by their elected representatives.
 

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Canada passes anti-spam bill

Call it C-28, call it FISA, call it COPL, just don’t call it a pipe dream any longer.
Today the Canadian anti spam law received royal assent and is now law. ReturnPath is saying it will take effect September 2011, but that’s the only date I’ve seen published. The full text of the bill as passed by the House of Commons can be found at http://www2.parl.gc.ca/content/hoc/Bills/403/Government/C-28/C-28_3/C-28_3.PDF
It’s fairly dense and I’m still reading through the final version. Of critical importance for anyone marketing in Canada is that it sets requirements that commercial email be sent with the permission of the recipient. This is different from CAN SPAM here in the US which doesn’t require consent of the recipient, but allows anyone to send unsolicited email as long as it meets the standards set by the law.
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Virgin Blue has been fined $110,000 by the Australian government for not honoring unsubscribes.

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The Constitutionality of SOPA

Lawrence Tribe, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard, says SOPA violates the first amendment.

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