Two pieces of dangerous legislation are currently being debated in Congress that could forever change the Internet: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA). The proponents of these harmful bills claim that it is necessary to stop online piracy, the illegal sale and/or distribution of copyrighted and trademarked products on the Internet. Regardless of how well-intentioned the pieces of legislation may be or one’s perspective on intellectual property laws, SOPA and the Protect IP Act would severely cripple free speech and stifle innovation online.
The Internet is a prime example of what Nobel Prize-winning economist F.A. Hayek called spontaneous order. One single institution does not control the Internet. This is primarily what makes the Internet so great. Billions of individuals all over the world are free to spread unrestricted information on the Internet. I actually became a libertarian largely because I was exposed to ideas that I never heard before on the free Internet. Can you imagine how terrible the Internet would be if it was centrally-planned by the government? A centralized institution cannot possibly know or satisfy the unique wants of billions of individuals across the globe.
article by By: Julie Borowski, Freedomworks Staff Writer
JHW says
PIPA and SOPA co-sponsors have withdrawn their support for the bills: http://mashable.com/2012/01/18/pipa-sopa-abandon-bill/
JHW says
Yes, it would be nice to have a list of the names and “yays/nays” for SOPA/PIPA for NC Congressional reps. In the meantime….
There is information available on Thomas.gov re: SOPA at: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:h3261: (include the “:” in the last part of that on the URL).
You can find your House of Representatives web site via this site and find your member’s stance: http://www.house.gov/
A friend of mine wrote me:
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Kay Hagan, the junior Democratic senator for NC, is a *co-sponsor* of PIPA. This may make it hard to change her mind, especially since she doesn’t have a race this year.
Richard Burr, the senior Republican senator, has not committed either way. He may be most responsive to points relating to the reduction of defensive cybersecurity capability. The National Review came out against the bills early, as have some NC tea party groups (e.g. http://www.ncteaparty.com/2012/01/sopa-and-pipa-would-destroy-internet-freedom/ )
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OBX Ron says
It would be very useful to publish the names and opinions of the Representatives in NC who support or do not support these bills. We need to know more about the thinking of our Representatives and whether they are aligned with the voters or with big businesses who want to have a closed internet.
In any case, knowing their stand would help voters on both sides of this issue to at least know who to vote for to represent their views.
Thank you