1st Amendment
1st Ame
To make the most impact, we're asking YOU to
do two things. Today, use our handy tool to send an email to your
representatives, letting them know you oppose these bills and they
should too. Then, on January 23, when the Senate is back in session
(and scheduled to vote on PIPA on January 24), call your Senator and
tell him or her that it's time to stand with the Internet and against
the Internet blacklists!
Big media and its allies in Congress are billing the
Internet blacklist legislation as a new way to battle online
infringement. But innovation and free speech advocates know that this
initiative will do little to stop infringement online. What it will do
is compromise Internet security, inhibit online expression, and slow
growth in the technology sector.
As drafted, the legislation would grant the
government and private parties unprecedented power to interfere with the
Internet's underlying infrastructure. The government would be able to
force ISPs and search engines to block users' attempts to reach certain
websites' URLs. In response, third parties will woo average users to
alternative servers that offer access to the entire Internet (not just
the newly censored U.S. version), which will create new computer
security vulnerabilities as the Internet grows increasingly balkanized.
It gets worse: the blacklist bills' provisions would
give corporations and other private parties new powers to censor foreign
websites with court orders that would cut off payment processors and
advertisers. Broad immunity provisions (combined with a threat of
litigation) would encourage service providers to overblock innocent
users or even block websites voluntarily. This gives content companies
every incentive to create unofficial blacklists of websites, which
service providers would be under pressure to block without regard to the
First Amendment.
Service providers would be forced to monitor and
police their users' activities as well, threatening the DMCA safe
harbors that have been vital to online innovation over the last decade.
SOPA gives the government new powers to go after sites that provide
information about tools that might be used to bypass the blacklists —
even though these are often the same tools used by democratic activists
around the world to bypass Internet censorship mechanisms implemented by
authoritarian governments like Iran and China.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Representative Darrell
Issa (R-CA) have led the charge in explaining how the blacklist bills
threaten the very infrastructure of the open Internet, joined by a
growing, bipartisan, group of Congress members. The White House also recently stated
it will not support a bill that threatens free speech, innovation, and
Internet security. But every Senator and Representative should be
opposing the PROTECT IP Act and SOPA and we need to hold the White House
to its word. Contact your members of Congress today to speak out!
ndment
To make the most impact, we're asking YOU to
do two things. Today, use our handy tool to send an email to your
representatives, letting them know you oppose these bills and they
should too. Then, on January 23, when the Senate is back in session
(and scheduled to vote on PIPA on January 24), call your Senator and
tell him or her that it's time to stand with the Internet and against
the Internet blacklists!
Big media and its allies in Congress are billing the
Internet blacklist legislation as a new way to battle online
infringement. But innovation and free speech advocates know that this
initiative will do little to stop infringement online. What it will do
is compromise Internet security, inhibit online expression, and slow
growth in the technology sector.
As drafted, the legislation would grant the
government and private parties unprecedented power to interfere with the
Internet's underlying infrastructure. The government would be able to
force ISPs and search engines to block users' attempts to reach certain
websites' URLs. In response, third parties will woo average users to
alternative servers that offer access to the entire Internet (not just
the newly censored U.S. version), which will create new computer
security vulnerabilities as the Internet grows increasingly balkanized.
It gets worse: the blacklist bills' provisions would
give corporations and other private parties new powers to censor foreign
websites with court orders that would cut off payment processors and
advertisers. Broad immunity provisions (combined with a threat of
litigation) would encourage service providers to overblock innocent
users or even block websites voluntarily. This gives content companies
every incentive to create unofficial blacklists of websites, which
service providers would be under pressure to block without regard to the
First Amendment.
Service providers would be forced to monitor and
police their users' activities as well, threatening the DMCA safe
harbors that have been vital to online innovation over the last decade.
SOPA gives the government new powers to go after sites that provide
information about tools that might be used to bypass the blacklists —
even though these are often the same tools used by democratic activists
around the world to bypass Internet censorship mechanisms implemented by
authoritarian governments like Iran and China.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Representative Darrell
Issa (R-CA) have led the charge in explaining how the blacklist bills
threaten the very infrastructure of the open Internet, joined by a
growing, bipartisan, group of Congress members. The White House also recently stated
it will not support a bill that threatens free speech, innovation, and
Internet security. But every Senator and Representative should be
opposing the PROTECT IP Act and SOPA and we need to hold the White House
to its word. Contact your members of Congress today to speak out!
ndment
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