Yesterday, the Post’s Maura Judkis reported that a group of people who work on the Internet launched a visual petition so Congress could see the faces of those who would be hurt by SOPA. Journalists are among their ranks.
Last month, Jennifer Martinez of Politico wrote that SOPA will be a “shootout at the digital corral,” between lobbyists in the entertainment industry and Internet giants. She can now add journalists to that list.
Dan Gillmor, a professor of digital media entrepreneurship at Arizona State University, shared the ASNE letter on his Google+ page Wednesday, writing: “Finally, journalists see the threat from SOPA and . . . this runaway train.”
Google’s founder Sergey Brin also lent his voice to the fight against SOPA, calling it ‘censorship’. As Cecilia Kang reported :
Google has emerged as one of the biggest corporate critics of a House anti-piracy bill, with co-founder Sergey Brin now likening the proposal to Internet censorship practices in China and Iran.
Brin took to the Google+ social networking site Thursday to post his opinion of the Stop Online Piracy Act being debated Thursday in the House Judiciary Committee for markup. He also opposes the Senate’s version of the measure, known as the Protect Intellectual Property Act.
“Imagine my astonishment when the newest threat to free speech has come from none other but the United States. Two bills currently making their way through congress -- SOPA and PIPA -- give the U.S. government and copyright holders extraordinary powers including the ability to hijack DNS and censor search results (and this is even without so much as a proper court trial),” Brin wrote. “While I support their goal of reducing copyright infringement (which I don't believe these acts would accomplish), I am shocked that our lawmakers would contemplate such measures that would put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world.”
Some lawmakers have bristled at those comparisons.
During the hearing, Rep. Berman (D-Calif.) attacked similar analogies made by Rep. Lofgren (D-Calif.) about SOPA’s ability to censor Web users through surveillance and filtering of their activities.
“That’s nonsense,” Berman said. “There’s a big difference between regulating commercial activity designed to deceive consumers and violate ownership rights and those seeking to suppress political conduct and dissent.”
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