Piracy is a crime: The Web blackout was dramatic, but short on facts
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Congress met the new kids on the lobbying block last week and promptly caved in to their demands.
The influence peddlers weren't dealing in dollars this time, though, and the targets of their ire were two bills intended to cut off Internet access to foreign sites that sell pirated products to U.S. customers.
The blowback from the virtual world started with Wikipedia, which shut down its site in protest last Wednesday, and quickly went viral. In one day, 4.5 million Google customers signed an online petition; 2 million Twitter users posted their opposition; and calls to congressional offices were arriving at a rate of 2,000 per second. In response, Republican Marco Rubio, a key sponsor of the Senate's Protect Intellectual Property Act, and influential supporters of the House's Stop Online Piracy Act, backed away from measures that had been expected to sail easily toward passage.
Not now.
The quick congressional turnabout suggests sponsors need to tighten language in their bills to prevent overreaching, but abandoning the measures is problematic. SOPA and PIPA -- despite the opponents' hyperbole suggesting the bills spelled the end of free speech and other horrors -- would have provided the means to deal with real-world repercussions of irresponsible and criminal behavior on the Internet.
The focus has been on Internet thievery as it affects the entertainment industry, with movie-makers, musicians and book publishers at the forefront of the effort. But Internet piracy reaches into all forms of commerce. U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, the Pennsylvania Democrat and a co-sponsor of PIPA, mentioned in a meeting Thursday with Post-Gazette editors two of the state firms that have been harmed by the sale of unauthorized, poor-quality knockoffs -- Zippo lighters and Martin guitars. So the threat is real, and it can even be close to home.
Many of the businesses and individuals who create content and products available on the Internet are entitled to protection under U.S. copyright laws, but the regulations have no teeth against companies based on foreign soil. The intention of SOPA and PIPA was to reform enforcement policies so they will work in the virtual world.
That remains a worthy goal for Congress, and members should not be afraid to tackle the issue -- no matter how many emails might flood their inboxes.
First Published January 23, 2012 12:00 am
