Defeat the Internet Blacklist bill

Stop The Internet Blacklist Bill
By David Segal and Patrick Ruffini

We are Tea Partiers and bleeding-heart liberals, we are artists and investment bankers, we represent the left and the right, and we support Senator Wyden as he comes forward, yet again, as a stalwart champion for First Amendment rights, innovation and digital security.

The problem at hand is a bill called the "Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act" (PROTECT IP) and it aims to permanently change our digital landscape – that's why we're calling it what it is: The Internet Blacklist Bill.

Imagine you're the successful owner of a heavily trafficked website. Your income and that of those with whom you work depends entirely on the advertising revenue and payments provided by visitors to your site. One day, without warning, your site no longer appears at its domain, your advertisers have backed out, and you can't even find your site on Google. You've been disappeared – blacklisted by new regulations set by Congress in the PROTECT IP Act.

If passed, PROTECT IP would give the government dramatic new powers to target websites dedicated to the illegal distribution of copyrighted content. Violating sites would have their domain disabled in DNS servers (the servers that match the domain name with the numerical IP address and make sure you go to the websites you want to), and all third party sites, including search engines, would be required to remove the site from their registries and disable all links to the domain in question.

Even worse, PROTECT IP also includes a "private right of action" that would allow rights holders to obtain a temporary restraining order against a domain in civil court. Instead, big content providers like the RIAA can target websites at their whim, urging courts to shut down anyone they accuse of violating U.S. copyright law.

The entities accused of infringement wouldn't even get their day in court until after they've been shut down – they could appeal to the courts for relief only after the fact.

Big interest groups in favor of PROTECT IP have recently pushed the idea that to be against this bill is to handicap aspiring artists and to be in opposition to a fair marketplace. We vehemently disagree. Regulations stipulated in PROTECT IP would cause tremendous damage to the infrastructure and security of the Internet and ultimately undermine the millions of entrepreneurs, businesses and artists who depend on a free, uninterrupted communications platform.

Already, venture capitalists, engineers, and entrepreneurs (including Google CEO Eric Schmidt) have penned letters and petitions against PROTECT IP, citing the corrosive effect it would have on digital security and innovation. Human rights activists are terrified that PROTECT IP will provide comfort to totalitarian regimes that seek ever more control over Internet users in their own countries. More that 400,000 Americans have urged their lawmakers to oppose the bill. But ultimately, we are depending on lawmakers, like Sen. Wyden to make the final decisions and defend our rights.

David Segal is Executive Director of the left-leaning Demand Progress and Patrick Ruffini is Executive Director of the right-leaning Don't Censor the Net, which together have generated more than 400,000 anti-PIPA contacts to Congress.

Source: click here

When both wings mutually hate something it must be pretty bad and PROTECT IP is definitely a bad bill and must go down to defeat. They have a petition on the Demand Progress website so do sign that as well. If you love freedom then don't hesitate to sign that petition.