Reddit founder on witness list for Oversight hearing on domain blocking

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian will be among the witnesses at the House Oversight hearing on Domain Name System and search engine blocking scheduled for Jan. 18.

The hearing, called by Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), comes two months after the Judiciary Committee held a one-sided hearing about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which would require search engines, domain providers and other firms to block access to foreign websites deemed dedicated to copyright infringement.

Issa is among the most vocal opponents of SOPA, which has drawn fierce opposition from the online community. Next week's hearing will include testimony from security researcher Daniel Kaminsky, cybersecurity expert Leonard Napolitano and other critics of the bill.

The full witness list from the committee is below:

• Stewart Baker, partner, Steptoe & Johnson LLP

• Brad Burnham, partner, Union Square Ventures

• Daniel Kaminsky, security researcher and Fortune 500 adviser

• Michael Macleod-Ball, chief of staff/First Amendment counsel, American Civil Liberties Union

• Lanham Napier, chief executive officer, Rackspace Hosting

• Leonard Napolitano, director, Center for Computer Sciences & Information Systems, Sandia National Laboratories

• Alexis Ohanian, co-founder, Reddit.com, and Web entrepreneur