Good intentions, global Internet censorship

The Internet community has taken an unprecedented united stance against Internet censorship legislation currently being rushed into US law. The two acts S. 968 “PROTECT IP Act (PIPA)” and H.R. 3261 “Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)” authorize the US government to censor and remove any web site from the Internet if a portion of the web site hosts or links to infringing content. This authority is unlimited, allowing the US government, for example to order the removal of any domain name or web site regardless of the country it is hosted in or pertains to without due process or right of appeal.

Internet corporations stand united in defiance of proposed SOPA and PIPA legislation.

The legal, technical and economic impacts have been unambiguously explained^[1] to the US legislature and the President. These laws will clearly put the interests of copyright holders ahead of the rights of society and the global Internet community. US corporations will be forced to police their web sites to avoid legal penalty. While such censorship is acceptable and financially viable in countries such as China, such monitoring and control over user content by US corporations will be prohibitively expensive. Such overhead and legal uncertainty represents an untenable risk that will impact the flow of investment and innovation that has driven this industry over the last decades.

Censoring the Internet is the wrong approach to protecting any sectoral interest. By enacting such legislation, the United States will lose its competitive advantage as well as its moral authority as a global leader in supporting Internet freedom. What can you do? If you are an American citizen, you can stand against Internet censorship by telling your congressperson that SOPA (H.R. 3261) and PIPA (S.968) does not work for you, for the Internet, or for the economy.

You can find out more about how to oppose SOPA and PIPA at the Net Coalition formed by AOL Inc, eBay Inc, Facebook Inc, Google Inc, LinkedIn Corp, Mozilla Corp, Twitter, Inc, Yahoo! Inc, Zynga Game Network and Wikimedia Foundation among many others.

[1] Submissions and resources (PDF):

• Legal opinion on PIPA from 108 Law professors from 31 states.
• International human rights submission on SOPA by 40 International (non-US) civil rights organisations
• US Students Association submission on SOPA and PIPA
• Briefing kit from Protect Innovation
• Hill packet from Net Coalition

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