Lawmakers: Cybersecurity bill is not SOPA

The sponsors of a cybersecurity bill that is moving through Congress pushed back against claims that the legislation is a reboot of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) that online activists helped defeat earlier this year. Critics who compare the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) to SOPA are “comparing apples and oranges,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Preventing online piracy and securing the nation’s infrastructure are “two very different things,” he said. CISPA, which Rep Rogers introduced with Rep Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, would allow government authorities to make classified and non-classified data available to the private sector for the purpose of shoring up the electronic defenses of critical infrastructure. Online activists who helped sink SOPA have turned their attention to the bill, and say they are concerned that the measure is another attempt by Congress to restrict the Internet.