Earlier this year, SOPA and PIPA were defeated in the wake of mass protests and concerns about privacy. Now, bills about the Internet in general might be stopped—at least in America, but it could have wide-reaching effects around the world as well. Congressman Darrell Issa, a Republican from California, seeks to ban bills about the Internet for at least two years. Issa posted the full text of the bill, which can be found here.
Issa, a proponent of online freedom, said, “Together, we can make Washington take a break from messing with the Internet.”
“After SOPA and PIPA (the Senate’s similar Protect Intellectual Property Act), it became very clear that we needed a cooling-off period to figure out a better way to create policy that impacts Internet users, job creators and all Americans,” a spokesman for Issa said.
Some were a bit skeptical of Issa’s proposal, saying, “I have a problem with legislation that preemptively ties your hands for years at a time. You can’t know what the internet or society will look like in six months, let alone two years, and making it harder to respond to emerging threats or opportunities is an abdication of your responsibilities as a member of Congress.”
Another user said, “The answer is NOT to ban new regulation. We need regulation,” another said. “But, I don’t believe ANYBODY in Congress has the vocabulary, is intelligent in knowing how the internet or computers work, or has the foresight to put current trends and future technologies together in a context to create those new regulation that protect the internet and it’s users/consumers.”
For those who frequent Reddit, you can also add to the discussion on Issa’s proposal on his IAMA here.