Background: Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep.
Darrell Issa (R-CA) and several colleagues have released draft legislation to
curb online copyright infringement. Text
of the draft and discussion of it is here.
The Twitter hash tag #open was set up to
discuss the draft bill.
The following statement is attributed to Sherwin
Siy, deputy legal director of Public Knowledge:
“We are
very pleased that Senator Wyden, Rep. Issa and their colleagues of both parties
in both the Senate and House have come up with a more reasonable approach to
combating foreign copyright infringement than the bills currently before
Congress.
“These
legislators and their allies have taken the time to listen to the concerns of a
broad range of interested parties, including the tech industry, cybersecurity
experts, public interest groups and human-rights organizations, as opposed to
the bills existing today which reflect the views of one industry.
“The draft
bill is a marked improvement because it adheres to the successful
‘follow-the-money’ approach used well to shut down Web sites in other contexts
such as Internet gambling, and because it makes certain that any actions are
taken by official government enforcement agencies – not allowing for the
vigilante justice in the other bills.
“Senate
Judiciary Committee Chairman Leahy has challenged opponents of his bill to come
up with an alternative. This draft meets
that challenge, and we look forward to working with the sponsors and others on
it. We hope that House Judiciary
Committee Chairman Lamar Smith will cancel the markup of his bill set for next
week until the new approach can be fully discussed.”