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Legislative History (COICA, PIPA and SOPA)
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) announced his opposition to taking up the bill in the Senate, and, to
date has successfully stalled Senate action.
On July 22, 2011, Sen. Leahy filed the Senate Judiciary Committee’s written report on the PRO-
TECT IP Act. S. Rep. No. 112-39 (2011).
Following several months of inactivity on the bill due to Senator Wyden’s hold, Senator Harry Reid
(D-NV) introduced a “cloture” motion on December 17, 2011 to “bring to a close” the debate on
the motion to allow the PROTECT IP Act to be considered on the floor of the Senate. According to
the Congressional Record, the cloture vote was originally scheduled for January 24, 2012, beginning
at 2:15 pm. 3
Immediately after the cloture motion was filed, Senator Wyden again expressed his intent to
filibuster the bill. 4 On January 12, 2012, Senator Leahy offered to withdraw a provision in the
PROTECT IP Act that was criticized for its impact on Domain Name System (“DNS”) security. 5 On
January 20, 2012, Senator Leahy issued a public statement about the postponing of the vote on the
cloture. 6 A new date has not yet been set.
In the meantime, Senator Wyden introduced his own version of an anti-counterfeiting/ anti-piracy
bill in the Senate on December 17, 2011, 7 entitled “Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital
Trade Act” (the “OPEN Act”), S. 2029, 112th Cong. (2011). The bill was co-sponsored by Sen.
Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS). The Senate bill has been referred to the
Senate Finance Committee.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) introduced a companion bill, H.B. 3782, on January 18, 2012. 8 Twentyfive
co-sponsors have been identified to date. 9 The House bill has been referred to both the House
Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee on the Judiciary.
On a related note, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee scheduled a hearing
on January 18, 2012 entitled “Government Mandated DNS Blocking and Search Takedowns—
Will It End the Internet as We Know It?” The hearing has been postponed and a new date has not
yet been set.
B. House Action: Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261)
The House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Intellectual Property,
Competition and the Internet has held two hearings on the topic of enforcing U.S. trademark and
copyright rights against illegitimate web sites. The first was held on March 14, 2011 entitled
“Promoting Investment and Protecting Commerce Online: Legitimate Sites v. Parasites, Part I.”
Testimony was presented by Maria A. Pallante (Acting Register of Copyrights, U.S. Copyright
Office), David Sohn (Senior Policy Counsel, Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT)), Daniel
Castro (Senior Analyst, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF)) and Frederick
Huntsberry (Chief Operating Officer, Paramount Pictures).
The Committee held a second hearing on April 6, 2011. Testimony was presented at this time by
Hon. John Morton (Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement); Floyd Abrams (a
First Amendment litigation specialist who testified on his own behalf); Kent Walker (Senior Vice
President and General Counsel for Google); and Christine Jones (Executive Vice President and
General Counsel for the GoDaddy Group).
On October 26, 2011, several members of the House Judiciary Committee, including Chairman
Lamar Smith (R-TX), and ranking Democrat John Conyers (D-MI) introduced the Stop Online
Piracy Act (“SOPA”) (H.R. 3261), a companion bill to S. 968, but with some significant differences
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