Still smarting from SOPA, Congress to shy away from copyright in 2013

Last January, hundreds of websites went dark to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act, a controversial proposal to use DNS filtering to censor websites suspected of infringing copyright. Millions of voters contacted their members of Congress to protest the legislation, and as a result dozens of members announced their opposition. The protests ended any serious consideration of copyright enforcement efforts for 2012.

"I think people are shell-shocked from that," SOPA opponent Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) told The Hill's Jennifer Martinez. "It was sort of an unprecedented experience that members do not want to repeat."

Lawmakers "have yet to even hint at efforts to revisit anti-piracy legislation," Martinez reports. She called key figures on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, which have jurisdiction over the copyright issues. None of them were planning to bring up copyright enforcement issues in 2013.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the chief sponsor of the Protect IP Act last year, remains concerned about the issue but has no plans to introduce legislation. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives were equally noncommittal.

One factor behind the legislators' lack of urgency: Big Content claims it's not interested in passing legislation this year. A spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of America told The Hill that the recording industry will be "entirely focused on music licensing issues and voluntary, marketplace initiatives" this year.

The Motion Picture Association of America echoed the stance its chairman took in October, saying it planned to develop "more robust best practices and voluntary efforts to protect the work of creators and makers while promoting an Internet that works for everyone." New copyright legislation is not on the MPAA's agenda.

Of course, that could change at any time. We have no doubt that the RIAA and MPAA will start lobbying for a SOPA successor as soon as they think they can get away with it. But for now, Congress is still too terrified about provoking another Internet backlash to consider new copyright enforcement measures.