A collective of the super powers of the internet, AOL, eBay, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Twitter, Yahoo and Zynga, sent a letter to key members of both congressional chambers in November stating their non support of the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act and the Senate’s Protect IP Act.
The same group of internet giants has now sent a letter to to House Oversight chairman Darrell Issa (California Republican) and Senator Ron Wyden (Oregon Democrat) in support of their competing proposal dubbed the OPEN Act.
California Congressman Darrell Issa has started the campaign to Keep The Web Open (www.KeepTheWebOpen.com) and has proposed The OPEN act (the Online Protection & ENforcement of Digital Trade Act).
As 2011 came to a close one of the hottest topics in technology was Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The battelines were being drawn as to who supported SOPA, and who did not. Online protests on the internet, and boycotts against supporters such as Go Daddy were started to protest their support of SOPA. Go Daddy has since reversed their stance and now claim they are against SOPA.
How to deal with internet pirates
The question at the core of the issue is how to deal with internet pirates. Many of the pirates sites, those that offer access to copyrighted materials that they do not own are outside the control of the US authorities. Since they can not be closed down, proposals such as the Senate's Protect IP hopes to use the technology of how internet traffic is routed, the use of domain names, and block traffic to sites identified as pirate sites.
The House proposal known as SOPA is seen by many technology companies as internet censorship as it would require search engines and directories to delete links to sites the government declares to be in violation of the law.
The OPEN Act would give the US government less control over the internet and would direct claims against foreign websites to the International Trade Commission (ITC), which would be authorized to order online ad networks and payment processors to sever ties with the rogue foreign sites.
We will be following the fight for intenet freedom in the weeks ahead. To stay informed or to share your Technology News, follow Tom Peracchio @Gu42 on Twitter or Guru42 on Facebook.
If you missed any of the recent news on the issues of controlling online piracy, please check out the links below.
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