Stop Online Piracy Act

Full title	"To promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes." —H.R. 3261[1]
Acronym	SOPA
Colloquial name(s)	House Bill 3261
Citations
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 3261 by Lamar Smith (R-TX) on October 26, 2011 Committee consideration by: House Judiciary Committee

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a United States bill introduced by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-TX) to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Provisions include the requesting of court orders to bar advertising networks and payment facilities from conducting business with infringing websites, and search engines from linking to the websites, and court orders requiring Internet service providers to block access to the websites. The law would expand existing criminal laws to include unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content, imposing a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Markup outcome

After the first day of the hearing, more than 20 amendments had been rejected, including one by Darrell Issa which would have stripped provisions targeting search engines and Internet providers. PC World reported that the 22–12 vote on the amendment could foreshadow strong support for the bill by the committee.^[201]

The Committee adjourned on the second day agreeing to continue debate early in 2012.^[191][202] Smith announced a plan to remove the provision that requires Internet service providers to block access to certain foreign websites.^[83] On January 15, 2012, Issa said he has received assurances from Rep. Eric Cantor that the bill would not come up for a vote until a consensus could be reached.