We at Voxilate oppose internet censorship and internet blacklisting. We do not think S.3804 (Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act) represents the independent software development community.
For more information on the bill, click here or here. For a list of supporters click here.
To contact your Senator or sign a petition against the bill visit Demand Progress.
The following is the text of the letter we sent to Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland:
Dear Senator,
I have communicated with you in the past about technology initiatives in Congress. I'd like to call your attention to another bill, S.3804, or the "internet blacklist" bill.
As an entrepreneur whose business depends solely on the Internet, this bill greatly concerns me. It is an unreasonably heavy-handed approach to a problem which already has many solutions such as the DMCA which are backed in legal theory.
The bill will not be effective at stopping copyright violation or unauthorized distribution of any kind. Those who wish to share content will easily find a workaround -- they always have. We in the software industry begrudgingly accept a certain amount of piracy as a way of life, and I do not believe this bill represents our interests.
S.3804 would only serve to create an environment of uncertainty which would disrupt commerce and encourage other countries to avoid or bypass US infrastructure. Larger businesses would continue to operate in legally grey areas and lobby to avoid the blacklist, while emerging small businesses would be destroyed.
It is unsettling that just months after the President signed the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, we are proposing a bill which would censor American internet sites and blacklist American companies. More policing is not the stimulus our country needs right now.
Please vote no on S.3804.
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