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If you haven’t heard about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) you really need to pay attention because it’s a horribly written law that would change the fundamental structure of the Internet. More than 40 industry-leading companies have spoken out against the law, trying to explain that the law would destroy the infrastructure of the Internet while doing little to nothing to stop piracy. Even Lamar Smith, SOPA’s Texas-based republican author and backer, has been hard-pressed to come up with excuses to push the bill… and yet it still keeps coming. |
In a letter from Frederick Iwans, general manager of 1&1 Internet, a few thousand customers have received a (mostly) layman’s explanation of why 1&1 has never supported SOPA. (Even as their direct competitor, GoDaddy, embraced SOPA and suffered the wrath of their customers.)
Have a read and decide for yourself…
Dear Sir/Miss,
You may have heard about Protect-IP (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) currently under consideration in Congress. If passed, among other things, SOPA requires Web hosting companies like 1&1 to police websites in order to prevent them from communicating copyrighted information on the internet. We would like to make sure you are aware of 1&1’s official position on SOPA.
As a global provider of domains and hosting services, we oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) or Protect-IP (PIPA) Acts currently under consideration. While we observe the concerns of those who are troubled by the potential impact on protecting intellectual property online, 1&1 feels there is an urgent need to strike a balance between dissemination of and access to information and protection against its illegal use within the public domain.
The US government is currently reviewing SOPA and PIPA as possible ways to prevent unlawful distribution of copyrighted materials available on the internet. These current proposals, if passed, would allow for significant interventions into the technological and economical basis of the internet.
