Thank god. From Benen:

Until now, the Obama administration had not taken a position on the issue. The response was published yesterday as part of the online “We The People” petition initiative launched by the White House last year.

Though the administration did issue a formal veto threat, the White House’s opposition signaled the end of these bills, at least in their current form.

A few hours later, Congress shelved SOPA, putting off action on the bill indefinitely.

[…] It’s possible that a related version of SOPA could come back at some point down the road – though probably not this year – but for now, the push against the bill has succeeded beautifully.

Dead in the House means pointless in the Senate, thankfully.

The opposition to these bills had become virtually omnipresent. The beginning of the end came last week, when the bills’ lead sponsors (Patrick Leahy in the Senate, unfortunately) announced their intentions to amend the bills to apply the most controversial element (unilaterally messing with the domain name system when a company complains, thus threatening the integrity and security of the internet) only after its full implications had been studied.

Seriously? Since when do you pass a law that includes provisions to make sure it is a good law after its passed? Don’t you make that determination first? Oy.

This is Leahy’s second try at a draconian law designed to protect copyright infringement that would have given corporations unlimited power to roll over first amendment and “fair use” rights, so the safe bet is that he’ll try again.

If so – how about a real attempt to address the actual problem, rather than just going for another one-sided corporate gimme? There are issues with internet piracy, sure. There are also plenty of cases of corporations using the existing system to squash people’s rights under the premise of protecting intellectual property.

A real attempt to address this issue would honestly and equally look at both sides of the issue. Don’t just talk to the Hollywood crowd on the piracy issue, bring in the ACLU on the freedom of expression issue. Work on something that solves the problem – but not at the expense of our fundamental freedoms, the integrity of the internet, and artistic, social, and technical innovation. Allow for honest judicial review of cases before giving corporations unfettered power to drop bombs on people.

And no, having a handful of employees at the Department of Commerce mull over industry demands requests before implementing them is not a serious protection of individuals. Please.

Seriously, Senator – if next time you approach this the right way, you might finally get what you’re looking for – and without tearing the internet and civil liberties to shreds. C’mon.