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Tech groups say online piracy bill would create 'nightmare' for Web and social media firms
A new online piracy bill unveiled in the House last week would stifle innovation and create a regulatory "nightmare" for Web and social media firms, according to three prominent technology industry advocacy groups.
NetCoalition, the Consumer Electronics Association and the Computer and Communications Industry Association sent a letter to members of Congress voicing their opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which was unveiled last week by members of the House Judiciary Committee.
The bill authorizes the Justice Department to seek injunctions against "rogue"
websites dedicated to providing access to pirated goods or content. Controversially, the legislation would allow the government and rights holders to demand
that third parties, including payment processors and online ad networks,
cut ties with such sites.
"As currently drafted, we believe SOPA is an alarming step backwards in Internet policy creating a thicket of Internet regulations containing 16 new legal definitions for evolving Internet technology," the groups argue.
"Further, the definition of 'dedicated to theft of U.S. property' is so broad it would unduly ensare legitimate companies' websites, products and services."
"In short, this is not a bill that targets 'rogue foreign sites.' Rather, it allows movie studios, foreign luxury goods manufacturers, patents and copyright trolls, and any holder of an intellectual property right to target lawful U.S. websites and technology companies," the letter states.
But Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's Intellectual Property sub-panel, told Hillicon the committee is still open to changing the bill to avoid imposing a burden on tech firms, and flatly rejected the notion it imposes a new regulatory structure on the Internet.
"Nothing could be further from the truth," Goodlatte said about the regulation claim, adding that there is "a lot of posturing going on" from stakeholders.
Search engines and social media firms have voiced concern that they would be required to actively police and block links to infringing websites, which they have termed an undue burden. Goodlatte said the current laws for addressing online piracy are badly outdated and that no sector of the Internet will be entirely exempted from taking part in the fight against online piracy.
"We're open to working with them on language to narrow [the bill's provisions], but I think it is unrealistic to think we're going to continue to rely on the DMCA notice-and-takedown provision," Goodlatte said.
"Anybody who is involved in providing services on the Internet would be expected to do some things. But we are very open to tweaking the language to ensure we don't impose extraordinary burdens on legitimate companies as long as they aren't the primary purveyors" of pirated content, he said.
As evidence, Goodlatte pointed to the private right of action provision, which is a significant departure from the Senate's version of the legislation known as the PROTECT IP Act. Unlike the Senate bill, copyright holders won't be able to directly sue intermediaries like search engines to block infringing websites. Instead, both government and rightsholders must receive a court's approval before taking action against third parties.
Goodlatte said the change was made in direct response to concerns raised by the technology community. He said additional changes are welcome and that lawmakers are open to whatever tech firms propose.
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