Republican Lamar Smith, the chief sponsor of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) announced he is planning to remove the provision on Domain Name System blocking (DNS blocking), so the House Judiciary Committee, responsible for matters with respect to legislation, can further examine this controversial provision.

SOPA is the new anti-piracy legislation in the United States. Originally, SOPA’s proposal stated right holders were able to block American and foreign domain names on suspicion of copyright infringement, without the interference of a judge. The latter has lead to a lot of criticism. Therefore, Lamar Smith amended the SOPA proposal last December, and as a result thereof, the DNS blocking only regarded foreign websites and required review by a judge. However, this amendment did not lead to removal of the DNS blocking provision.

In case the DNS blocking provision actually will be removed now, it will be a great victory for SOPA opponents. However, the US government will still be allowed to track funds and cut-off payment options. Also, search engines may be obligated to remove copyright infringing websites from their search results. 

Read more about SOPA on FutureOfCopyright.com:

• Controversy around SOPA continues
• SOPA debate postponed to January next year 

References: Emerce.nl, Foxnews.com