The battle has been going on for months, and is starting to heat up. Do you know where Delaware's members of Congress stand on technology legislation? Let's take a look.
Representative John Carney (Democrat)
Starting first with Representative John Carney, according to ProPublica Carney has no stated position on SOPA. Representative John Carney has kept a pretty low profile in congress regarding technology issues, and his name has not been associated with any technology related legislation.
Senator Christopher A. Coons (Democrat)
Not only is Senator Chris Coons a supporter of PIPA, he was one of the co-sponsors of S. 968: Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011. The name was shortened to the Protect IP Act, and commonly referred to on the internet as PIPA.
Currently, S. 968 is scheduled to be addressed by the full senate next week.
The first term senator is also the co-sponsor of another controversial technology bill, S. 978: A bill to amend the criminal penalty provision for criminal infringement of a copyright. The bill commonly known as the Ten Strikes Bill had YouTube users scared and outraged this summer when it was proposed. The bill would make illegal streaming of video a felony. The term "Ten Strikes" comes from the provisions of the law which call for strict penalties of being "imprisoned not more than 5 years" for "10 or more public performances by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copyrighted works."
There has been no action on S. 978 since June, and the bill seems to be abandoned.
Senator Thomas R. Carper (Democrat)
According to ProPublica the senior senator from Delaware has no stated position on PIPA.
While Senator Carper has not taken a stance on PIPA, he was the the Co-sponsor of another controversial technology bill. S. 413: Cybersecurity and Internet Freedom Act of 2011.
S. 413 was commonly referred to as "The Internet Kill Switch" bill. The stated purpose of the bill was to "create an Office of Cyber Policy in the White House with a director accountable to the public who would lead all federal cyberspace efforts and devise national cyberspace strategy."
The timing of S. 413 was not long as the actions in Egypt where the government silenced the internet for a few days. Questions were raised on the technical and legal concepts of the Internet Kill Switch in the United States.
There has been no action on S. 413 since June, and the bill seems to be abandoned.
The names of the legislators at the beginning of each section in this article links back to their official website where you can find complete contact information.
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If you missed any of the recent news on the issues of controlling online piracy, please check out this link to a comprehensive list of internet legislation articles.
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