SOPA / PIPA slips...

January 18, 2012
Online Piracy Act Loses Support After an unprecedented day of Internet-based lobbying, a proposal to clamp down on online piracy lost support Wednesday.   The Stop Online Piracy Act and a Senate companion, the Protect IP Act, were criticized by websites such as Wikipedia and Google as being written too broadly.   Hollywood took a different view, arguing the measure is necessary to stop online pirating of movies, TV shows and other copyrighted material.   But Silicon Valley appears to have won this round, with several lawmakers backing away from the bill.   Read more about SOPA's support in Congress.     Congressional Websites Go Dark It wasn't just Wikipedia that went dark Wednesday. At least four Members of Congress "blacked out" their offiical websites in solidarity with an Internet-wide protest by opponents of bills to crack down on online piracy of music and movies.   Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Earl Blumenaeur (D-Ore.), Mike Honda (D-Calif.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) showed protest messages on their House.gov sites on the same day as link aggregator Reddit and online encylopedia Wikipedia.   Read more about the blackouts.   Also of Interest   * Lawmaker asks Apple to take down fake driver's license app.   * Activists ramp up lobbying before SOPA vote.   * How copyright law affected John McCain's presidential bid.   Join Us on Google Plus You can now find the same stories you enjoy in the weekly Congress.org newsletter online  on Google Plus.   Roll Call, our sister publication, has joined the new social networking platform and we'll be putting free stories up every day.   If you're on Google Plus, you can follow us by simply going to the page below and clicking "Add to Circles."   Follow Roll Call on Google Plus.   Write Congress Through Facebook!   You can now write members of Congress on whatever subject you'd like through our Facebook application.   Simply go to our Facebook page and click on the "Tell Congress" option — or go directly to the Compose Your Own Message page by clicking on this link.    What's Happening in California — Or Your State?   It can be hard to keep track of California's lawmakers.   Sen. Barbara Boxer defending the federal budget. Rep. Darrell Issa launching investigations. Rep. Jane Harman retiring.   That's why we created a Facebook page where you can track all the news about the Golden State's delegation — CongressCA.   In fact, we started 50 pages, one for each state in the union. Simply find your state in the list below, go to the Facebook page and click the thumb's up "Like" button at the top of the page.   Alabama | Alaska | Arizona | Arkansas | California | Colorado | Connecticut | Delaware | Florida | Georgia | Hawaii | Idaho | Iowa | Illinois | Indiana | Kansas | Kentucky | Louisiana | Maine | Maryland | Massachusetts | Michigan | Minnesota | Mississippi | Missouri | Montana | Nebraska | Nevada | New Hampshire | New Jersey | New Mexico | New York | North Carolina | North Dakota | Ohio | Oklahoma | Oregon | Pennsylvania | Rhode Island | South Carolina | South Dakota | Tennessee | Texas | Utah | Virginia | Vermont | Washington | Wisconsin | West Virginia | Wyoming   Twenty-Five Thousand Fans Can't Be Wrong   This month, Congress.org added its 25,000th fan on Facebook.   Our community of users gets the latest news on Congress and national activism every time they log in to the world's most popular social networking site.   They can also write Members of Congress on the issue of the week through our new "Tell Congress" feature — in less than a minute.   So what are you waiting for? Go to  facebook.com/congressorg and click the "Like" button" today!	Get on Your Soapbox Want to make your voice heard concerning issues important to you? Get on your soapbox and make it happen! Our Soapbox feature allows you to give exposure to your issue and lets other Congress.org users take action on the alerts you create. Registered users are now allowed four free soapbox alerts per month! Track Your Lawmakers Want to track votes cast by your Members of Congress? Sign up for our regular MegaVote newsletter. Signed, Sealed, Hand-Delivered! Did you know that you can have your message hand-delivered to the door of your Members of Congress? For a small fee, we can give your letter "Extra Impact" to help make your voice heard. Select that option when filling out your message on any topic. Add Us Don't forget to add congressorg@capwiz.com to your address book to ensure prompt delivery of this newsletter each week.
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