Lawkmakers don’t want to trigger the same kind of online revolt that killed SOPA . | AP Photos Pols fear 'SOPA backlash'


In the wake of the Internet blackout that led to the dramatic death of two controversial online piracy bills, a new warning has entered the Hill vernacular: “Don’t get SOPA’d.”

Lawmakers are tiptoeing around issues that could tick off tech heavyweights such as Google or Amazon. They don’t want a legislative misstep to trigger the same kind of online revolt that killed the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect IP Act in the Senate in January.

That means the industry now has the upper hand in some legislative debates — from cybersecurity to online sales tax.

“Nobody wants another SOPA moment,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), a vocal critic of SOPA, told POLITICO. “The nerds are more powerful than anyone thought, and the tech industry flexed its muscle like never before.”

Lawmakers don’t want to give the tech industry a reason to flex that muscle again at the expense of their own bills, so they’re going to extra lengths to address the industry’s concerns and smooth out disagreements that could escalate into bigger fights.

Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) said the anti-SOPA movement showed a certain “coming of political age” for the tech industry, and his colleagues in the House are treading carefully.

“They’re involving the tech community more and are more interested in listening,” said Polis, who also opposed SOPA. “They’re paying closer attention now.”

The SOPA wounds are still fresh. It was less than two months ago that Wikipedia and Reddit went dark in protest of SOPA and PIPA, and Google blacked out its logo on its homepage. Tech blogs warned of the dangers of the two Hollywood-backed bills that would have ratcheted up the legal consequences of hosting illegally copied content on the Web. The entertainment industry, which had done an excellent job lining up bipartisan support for the bills, hoped the legislation would significantly curb the online piracy that has decimated their business models.

But Web companies saw it as government overreach that could lead to censorship and gigantic legal expenses for startups. They rallied their user base, spread the message on social media and prompted millions of angry phone calls and emails to Congress. Within two days of the blackout, Reid officially shelved PIPA and Rep. Lamar Smith abandoned SOPA. The Netizens claimed victory.

Now, the question is whether that grass-roots force can direct its ire at any new effort in Washington that could be perceived as being negative for the Internet and the companies built upon it.

“Inside the Beltway, the hope is that the SOPA revolt was a one-time thing … but there’s no doubt that the citizens of the Internet are riled up and plan to stay that way,” said Larry Downes, senior adjunct fellow at Tech Freedom, a policy think tank. “Once the pitchforks are up, it’s hard to put them down.”

There likely won’t be another reason to wield those pitchforks this year, partly because very little is expected to happen on Capitol Hill before the presidential election. But even on cybersecurity — the hot tech debate this month — movement is extra slow as lawmakers carefully try to line up tech industry support.

“There’s so much fear about a SOPA backlash that it’s almost halting progress on anything,” said one tech industry source who’s involved in the cybersecurity talks. “With every Internet and technology issue coming forward, people worry and ask, ‘Is this the next SOPA?’”

As a result, current drafts of cybersecurity legislation are much milder than previous versions. For example, there’s no longer any provision that could be construed as an Internet “kill switch” that gives the president power to shut down networks in the event of a massive cyberattack.

But there are still some provisions of bills that concern tech companies. The bill written by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) would impose new requirements on “critical infrastructure” that could include a wide range of networks, which Republicans and corporations say would be a bureaucratic burden on businesses.

A rival bill by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) doesn’t include the critical infrastructure provision but would subject companies that provide network services to the government — such as AT&T or IBM — to broad new data reporting requirements.

Privacy advocates worry both bills would expand the National Security Agency’s ability to monitor domestic Internet networks. That provision has made lawmakers especially skittish because it has the potential to spook activists.

Lieberman, along with Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), recently tried to allay fears by issuing a press release that said their bill “in no way resembles” SOPA and PIPA.

Still, the legislation is causing some uneasiness among House Republicans who back the GOP bill in the Senate. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said he hopes Reid will try to strike the right balance on cybersecurity by considering the GOP bill.

Reid “doesn’t want a SOPA on his hands, so he’s hopefully going to open his eyes to the alternative version the Republicans have and try to get that through,” McCaul told POLITICO.

Efforts to impose a sales tax on goods purchased online are also seen as a potential danger zone. Internet giants Amazon and eBay have millions of sellers and buyers that operate in just about every district, so lawmakers don’t want to cross them, Polis said.

“Many constituents and voters have a great affinity for technology,” he said. “They really like their Internet freedom and members of Congress mess with them at their peril.”

Other members are invoking the SOPA incident to stir up concerns about an international copyright treaty now under consideration by European regulators. The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said this week, “represents as great a threat to an open Internet as SOPA and PIPA and was drafted with even less transparency and input from digital citizens.”

That kind of talk is tapping into an effort already under way by some Internet defenders to sign petitions against the treaty.

Despite the fear of “another SOPA,” even tech industry lobbyists acknowledge that it’s largely overblown. The grass-roots uprising that led to the Internet blackout was a rare confluence of factors in the long-running Silicon Valley-versus-Hollywood fight that won’t be easy to replicate.

“The rational observers realize there’s a significant overestimation of high tech’s ability to control the netroots,” said one industry lobbyist.

Another lobbyist said it’s “nearly impossible” to get the tech community to engage on policy issues, especially complicated measures that are highly technical, such as cybersecurity, or dry, such as online taxes.

“SOPA was an inflection point and people on the Hill are certainly going to take more notice next time around,” the lobbyist said. “But one incident like that isn’t going to be the huge game changer.”

Nonetheless, lawmakers learned a big lesson, Chaffetz said.

“The whole thing underscored a lack of understanding on the Hill of how the industry works,” he said. “When faced with a crisis moment, the [industry] can do it again.”

Jennifer Martinez contributed to this report.

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