Letter to Congress: Stop PROTECT IP and SOPA

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Fight for the Future (among others) have issued calls to action asking us to write our Congressional representatives to have them stop the SOPA and Protect IP from passing. Here's the letter I sent to my representative and senators:

Dear [CongressCritter]:

I am writing to you as a concerned voter in your district. I strongly urge you to oppose the Stop Online Privacy Act (H.R.3261) and to urge your counterparts in the Senate to oppose the PROTECT IP Act (S.968).

While the Internet continues to raise legitimate questions about intellectual property rights and their enforcement, these pieces of legislation are gross, heavy-handed overreactions to such concerns. In their current form, these bills provide no meaningful protection for intellectual property rights but still threaten critical features of the Internet. Quoting from a November 18, 2011 article in "The Atlantic":

"[U]nder scrutiny, it's obvious that even a conservative accounting of [the] costs far outweigh even an optimistic assessment of [the] benefits. To sum them up, the certain costs include disrupting the business models of countless technology companies that are not in the business of piracy; handing the federal government substantial and unprecedented powers over the Internet; entrenching a guilty-until-proven-innocent attitude toward copyright infringement; making the Internet less secure for everyone; arguably infringing on the First Amendment; contravening internationally recognized Internet standards; and undermining international press freedoms and human rights."

A number of a technology companies (including Google, Facebook, Twitter, EBay, and members of the Business Software Alliance), as well as various members of the Senate, have expressed grave concerns that such legislation will seriously harm technical innovation and stifle investment in the new ideas and businesses crucial to future economic growth.

More importantly, as "The Atlantic" article notes, this legislation threatens our fundamental Constitutional rights to due process and free speech. As written, these bills would deny those accused of aiding in copyright infringement the right to answer the charges against them before their sites are blocked from the Internet. The detrimental consequences of such actions cannot be overstated. If this legislation passes, outreach organizations--including those of which I am a member of at my university--could find their web and social media sites blocked due to accusations of infringement arising from use of media normally covered by fair-use provisions, while leaving them with no meaningful legal recourse to challenge such actions.

Over the past few days, numerous businesses, advocacy organizations, and ordinary citizens such as myself have expressed our concerns about the myriad ways that these bills will stifle innovation and our constitutional rights. In the coming days, many more will continue to do so. I hope you will take my concerns under serious consideration and join your colleagues (among them, Representatives Issa, Paul, and Pelosi and Senators Cantwell, Moran, Paul, and Wyden) in opposing such legislation.

Sincerely,
[Name here]

I strongly encourage you to call, write, and carrier pigeon your CongressCritter to stop these ludicrous bills. Feel free to use any or all of my letter (though you might want to change the bit about outreach organizations unless you're so involved), but please, act!

For more information about the potential consequences of the SOPA and the PROTECT IP Act, refer to this CNet FAQ and various articles linked to under the Twitter #protectip and #sopa tags.