Judiciary Committee schedules markup of online piracy bill for Thursday

The House Judiciary Committee unveiled a series of changes to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) on Monday and scheduled a markup of the controversial legislation for Thursday morning.

The manager's amendment offered by Judiciary chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) is designed to blunt of the criticisms of the bill from the technology community, which has argued the bill's language is overly broad and could unintendedly ensnare some legitimate websites.

The amendment would clarify that the bill's provisions apply only to foreign websites dedicated to copyright infringement and narrows the definition of several key terms including rogue website, search engine and payment processor.

Supporters of SOPA on the Committee have pushed back against critics including Google, arguing many are looking to avoid doing their fair share to prevent online piracy.

The movie industry has dismissed an alternative proposal, the OPEN Act, in part because it doesn't require search engines to delete links to rogue websites.

While Smith has voiced some flexibility on the bill's terms, critics argue no amount of tinkering can resolve concerns about censorship or that the bill would undermine the fundamental structure of the Internet. Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt said the bill would criminalize linking during a speech on Monday.