Dear Rep. Markey, Sen. Kerry, and Sen. Brown,
I write to you in strong opposition to the current SOPA and PIPA bills that have been introduced into Congress. I write as a constituent in Arlington, MA, as a former classroom teacher, and as a current education researcher.
Piracy is a serious and important issue that requires a thoughtful response, a response that targets the most serious and potentially harmful copyright and intellectual property issues (such as those related to counterfeit pharmaceuticals) while respecting our Constitutional liberties and the extraordinary benefits that a free and open Internet have brought to our society.
That said, SOPA and PIPA are not responsible solutions to these issues, and the cure they offer is considerably worse than the disease. The bills place far too much liability on content hosting sites (many of which are essential for providing a 21st century education to students in schools and college) for occasional and temporary infringements from user-generated content. They provide far too much power to wealthy copyright holders who can use the threat of expensive legislation to restrict freedom of expression on the Internet and threaten the Fair Use principles that are essential for educators to exercise their rights to use copyrighted material for educational purposes. As we continue to work together as a nation to create a climate of innovative entreprenurialism that will move us out of the Great Recession, the last thing we need is a bill that severely curtails the free exchange of legitimate ideas, goods, and services on the Internet in order to make marginal progress on dealing with the issue of piracy.
Sen. Kerry and Sen. Brown, I urge you to join the bipartisan group of Senators Wyden, Moran, Cantwell, and Paul in their filibuster of PIPA . Then, I urge all three of you to play a leadership role in developing alternatives to SOPA and PIPA that target Internet piracy without attacking the foundations of the Internet.
Sincerely,
Justin Reich