SOPA has not been in the news recently. It is already starting to seem to some
like a piece of Internet history, and in fact was recently a Jeopardy question,
tweeted yesterday by Rep. Darrell Issa: “On Jan. 18, 2012 some popular websites
went dark in protest of SOPA, a bill to ‘stop online’ this type of theft”
“What is ‘piracy,’ Alex?” [JPG]
A bit of a refresher on the timeline: PIPA (the PROTECT IP Act) was
introduced in the Senate on May 12, 2011.
SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act) was introduced in the House on October
26, 2011. The day major sites and
communities “went dark” was January 18, 2012. And now, September 2012, there has not yet been a new
anti-“piracy” bill introduced since the opposition was successful in stopping
SOPA and PIPA.
But last week, Roll Call reported that one of the biggest
supporters of the SOPA legislation, the Chamber of Commerce, appears to be
gearing up for SOPA 2.0 (or COICA 3.0, etc.). The article described a new Chamber campaign around the
website “DangerousFakes.com,” which is run by the Global IP Center, an
affiliate of the Chamber of Commerce.
They included the caveat that:
“The Chamber says it is not pushing any particular bill and
characterizes the campaign as a chance to raise awareness and reshape public
opinion after efforts to pass legislation imploded last winter.”
Later, the article added:
“This time, the Chamber is de-emphasizing the regulatory
impact on the Internet and Hollywood’s interests while playing up the effects
of counterfeiting on the pharmaceutical industry and broad consumer goods
markets.”
This campaign is invoking a frequent, misleading
conflation. Counterfeit
pharmaceuticals may be a problem, but they involve a very different set of
issues from online “piracy,” and looping them in together is inappropriate. Similarly, ACTA stands for
“Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement,” in an attempt to frame the text around
the counterfeiting problem, but that agreement was opposed primarily for its
potential consequences on expression and the Internet.
A Chamber spokeswoman explained in the Roll Call piece that
DangerousFakes.com is just an “awareness campaign,” “not a legislative push,”
and “not political.” Still, it is
an attempt to put this issue back in the consciousness of the public and their
elected representatives.
However, the Internet is already prevalent this campaign
season. Internet policy is on the
minds of many Congressmen and candidates.
Both Democrats and Republicans have emphasized language showing how
fundamental the Internet is to American competitiveness.
The Republican platform, as reported by Mashable:
“The Internet has unleashed innovation, enabled growth, and
inspired freedom more rapidly and extensively than any other technological
advance in human history.”
The Democrat platform, which is available here, mentioned the
Internet multiple times, including:
“President Obama is strongly committed to protecting an open
Internet that fosters investment, innovation, creativity, consumer choice, and
free speech, unfettered by censorship or undue violations of privacy.”
Obama’s recent Reddit AMA, as reported by O’Reilly Media:
“Internet freedom is something I know you all care
passionately about; I do too. We will fight hard to make sure that the internet
remains the open forum for everybody – from those who are expressing an idea to
those to want to start a business. And although there will be occasional
disagreements on the details of various legislative proposals, I won’t stray
from that principle – and it will be reflected in the platform.”
CCIA, too, recently provided its recommendations to the
Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator [PDF], in which the importance of
balance was emphasized throughout.
As these examples make clear, Internet freedom is now an
issue, and will continue to be, even if entities like the Chamber attempt to
mask it in very different, albeit legitimate, concerns about
counterfeiting. As I explained
more in my last post:
Stakeholders
in Internet and intellectual property policy and legislation going forward must
include the wide range of individuals and organizations and companies who rely
on the Internet for business, the engineers who understand technology and the
Internet, and most importantly the public interest.
