Bipartisanly Bad Bill Is HR 3261 — The Stop Online Privacy Act or HR 3261 is a bipartisanly bad bill which will fill with sand the oil pan of the internet and the gas tank with water.
It was introduced, Oct. 26, by Lamar Smith (R-Corporate America) and co-sponsored by 31 smarter-than-thou establishmentarians including corporate-beholden Democrats Debbie Wasserman-Shultz (who chairs the Democrat National Committee) and John Conyers, and Pennsylvania hacks Tim Holden of the 17th District and Tom Marino of the 10th District.
The bill, as described in Wikipedia, would authorize the U.S. Department of Justice to seek court orders against websites outside U.S. jurisdiction accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement and allow the U.S. Attorney General to order US-directed Internet service providers, ad networks, and payment processors to suspend doing business with sites found to infringe on federal criminal intellectual property laws. The Attorney General could also bar search engines from displaying links to the sites.
Sounds nice and all but as some point out the definitions are so broad, punishments so draconian and the unaccountability of the law’s enforcers so glaring that such a law would basically be an invitation to harass innocent, productive persons providing a socially useful service.
Copyright law actually has a reputation for being a venue for this sort of thing.
Oppose this legislation.