Is CBS using its news to scare up support for the Protect IP Act?

The Senate "Protect IP Act," which purports to protect the U.S. from illegal foreign sites, but which has been called "disastrous" and "the worst [proposed] internet legislation in a decade" is now slithering through the legislative pipeline, as is its evil House twin, SOPA ("Stop Online Piracy Act.")

The way the two bills were written, movie studios and other content providers would be able to effectively shut down a website simply by accusing it of copyright infringement. Equally disturbing, social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, and blogs would be subject to liability in the event that a user posts content that infringes a copyright.

"[T]his is not a bill that targets 'rogue foreign sites.' Rather, it allows movie studios, foreign luxury goods manufacturers, patents and copyright trolls, and any holder of an intellectual property right to target lawful U.S. websites and technology companies," the Consumer Electronics Association and the Computer and Communications Industry Association said in a letter to members of Congress.

Support for Protect IP Act / SOPA comes from, among others, the political action group Creative America. Creative America's membership includes CBS Corporation, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Viacom, The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros.

But already, Google, Yahoo!, eBay, American Express, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Reporters Without Borders, and Human Rights Watch and other organizations are organizing to oppose the bills.



108 law professors also are opposed to this law. They, more than anyone, understand it and are disturbed by it.

PROTECT-IP Letter, Final