American Censorship Day Letter

Thank you for taking the time to read my message.

I am writing to you in regards to my concerns over the Stop Online Piracy Act, being considered by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee today.

Online piracy is a huge problem, draining many billion dollars from the United States economy every year. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act does not reflect adequate measures to helping stem this loss, and needs to be augmented or revised.

The Stop Online Privacy Act IS NOT the way to do it.

SOPA has the potential to have wide-spread consequences towards the nature of the web and how we use it. It allows private, super-powerful corporations to essentially interpret and practice their own copyright law, shaping and using it within their own interests. Content providers and hosts such as ISP's and storage platforms (e.g. Google, YouTube, and Facebook) would be forced with impossible tasks of ultra-regulation of content, severely affecting their ability to do business.

This bill essentially allows the sidestepping of the First and Fourth Amendments.  The American public will be deprived of the right to view or display content based on the whims of large corporations.

The bottom line is that this bill will shift economic focus to outdated and declining forms of content provision. It will reduce the speed of our economy's recovery for the sake of preserving old economic systems. It will also SEVERELY affect the ability for online start-ups to conduct business based on existing content platforms or the ability for online start-ups to host their own services in a profitable manner. Internet entrepreneurs will be critically hampered by the passing of this bill.

I urge you to sound your voice against the Stop Online Privacy Act, and work to find a more rights-preserving solution. I also urge you to contact the following representatives who are sponsoring the bill to warn them of the dangers and First and Fourth Amendment infringements from its passing:

Mark E. Amodei (R-NV)
John Barrow (D-GA)
Karen Bass (D-CA)
Howard L. Berman (D-CA)
Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
John Carter (R-TX)
Steve Chabot (R-OH)
John Conyers (D-MI)
Theodore E. Deutch (D-FL)
Elton Gallegly (R-CA)
Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)
Tim Griffin (R-AR)
Peter King (R-NY)
Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM)
Mary Bono Mack (R-CA)
Tom Marino (R-PA)
Alan Nunnelee (R-MS)
William L. Owens (D-NY)
Dennis Ross (R-FL)
Steve Scalise (R-LA)
Adam B. Schiff (D-CA)
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)
Lamar Smith (R-TX)
Lee Terry (R-NE)
Mel Watt (D-NC)

Thank you very much for your time.