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DNS blocking cut from SOPA

Vote delayed and amendments made after White House objections

A controversial part of the Stop Online Piracy Act that related to DNS blocking has been cut after White House resistance. The senate vote is currently delayed while the US House of Senate struggles to reach a consensus.

"After consultation with industry groups across the country, I feel we should remove Domain Name System blocking from the Stop Online Piracy Act so that the Committee can further examine the issues surrounding this provision," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith.

"We will continue to look for ways to ensure that foreign websites cannot sell and distribute illegal content to U.S. consumers."

On Saturday the Obama administration highlighted the reasons for its objection to that part of SOPA.

"Proposed laws must not tamper with the technical architecture of the internet through manipulation of the Domain Name System (DNS), a foundation of internet security," said an official memo.

"Our analysis of the DNS filtering provisions in some proposed legislation suggests that they pose a real risk to cybersecurity and yet leave contraband goods and services accessible online."

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch took to Twitter to voice his thoughts on the White House's move.

"So Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery," he tweeted.

"Piracy leader is Google who streams movies free, sells adverts around them. No wonder pouring millions into lobbying."

A number of companies have spoken out against SOPA, including Epic and Bungie. Firefall developer Red 5 Studios plans to shutdown the game's beta and website on Wednesday as an act of protest.

"We are extremely disappointed in this misguided legislation," CEO Mark Kern told Shacknews.

"We are also ashamed of the ESA for supporting a bill which is clearly not in the best interests of gamers or the game industry."

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Rachel Weber avatar

Rachel Weber

Senior Editor

Rachel Weber has been with GamesIndustry since 2011 and specialises in news-writing and investigative journalism. She has more than five years of consumer experience, having previously worked for Future Publishing in the UK.

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