California Democrat, Rep. Zoe Lofgren—whose district includes Silicon Valley—is preparing to head the congressional opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act.
The antipiracy bill, which was introduced yesterday in the House of Representatives–to the applause of Hollywood lobbyists—is designed to remove alleged copyright-infringing Web sites (referred to as “rogue” sites) from the Internet.
Lofgren represents the key support structure to Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and other tech companies who are tirelessly working with advocacy groups to defeat the Act. Although the tech space is a powerful and influential sector, they seem to be outnumbered and outspent—the bill’s supporters include the Democratic and Republican heads of the relevant Senate and House Committees. I
The Stop Online Piracy Act is obscenely controversial; the Electronic Frontier Foundation deems it disastrous because it would effectively force modifications to the Domain Name System and create a blacklist of domains suspected of violating intellectual property rights. If you feel your rights were violated want to learn more about copyright contact a copyright lawyer.
