SOPA - an email to @auctnr1
I recently received this email from Congressman Billy Long regarding the Stop Online Piracy Act:
To which I replied:Dear Mr. Sinn,
Thank you for contacting me with your concerns regarding S. 968, Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act and H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act. I sincerely appreciate the benefit of your views.S. 968, and its House companion bill H.R. 3261, would allow the Attorney General to bring additional judicial remedies against websites dedicated to intellectual property right infringement. It would enable the Department of Homeland Security to share information which would facilitate the prosecution of copyright infringers existing outside the United States or which cannot be located. The measure would also grant limited immunity to victims of property right infringement to take preventative actions against infringing entities, such as denying them access to services. I will closely monitor this bill as it moves through the legislative process and in that context your views are very helpful.
I am a strong believer in protecting property rights, including intellectual property rights. The internet has unfortunately made it easier for certain types of intellectual property to be stolen by persons in jurisdictions outside the reach of American law enforcement. I also have concerns about the proliferation of criminal conduct on the internet, including internet viruses which can steal information or damage equipment. However, I want to stress that I am very sensitive to concerns about personal privacy, especially when the entity invading a person’s privacy is the government. We should uphold the law, but I do not want to impose unforeseen burdens on the internet which could stifle the growth of the internet medium.
Again, thank you for contacting me on this important issue. Hearing the views of all Missourians gives me the opportunity to better understand how important issues could impact the people of the Seventh district and the future interests of the nation.
For additional information regarding current legislation and my representation of the Seventh District, I invite you to visit my website at http://www.long.house.gov, and to receive my monthly newsletter, you can sign up on my website.
Sincerely,
Billy Long
Member of Congress
Please feel free to use parts or all of my reply to contact your local Congressmen.Dear Congressmen Billy Long,
I appreciate your reply and your service to our country. However, I completely disagree with your sentiments on this bill. The internet in its current form has the greatest potential for open enterprise. Services such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Google itself champion this example. However these very services will be crippled by this bill because of its open-endedness. It puts the power into the companies hands rather than the entrepreneurs of the internet.The companies already have a proper balance of power to protect their intellectual property through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
As an auctioneer, you can imagine the damage it would do to your industry if you weren’t allowed to redistribute the very goods that you sell? I implore you as a tax-payer, as a voter, as a web-worker, as a United States Citizen to please change your mind/vote on this.
Sincerely,
Brett Sinn
Springfield, MO
