The companies joined the opposition with a letter to members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives about the Stop Online Piracy Act, also called the E-PARASITE act, CNET reports. While they support the bill’s goals of preventing rogue sites from distributing copyrighted materials, the tech giants say the act would “undermine the effective mechanism Congress enacted in the Digital Millenium [sic] Copyright ACT (DMCA) to provide a safe harbor for Internet companies that act in good faith to remove infringing content from their sites.”
The letter also claims the act would “pose a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as to our nation’s cybersecurity.”
The bill is divided into two parts. The first deals with sites outside U.S. jurisdiction which freely distribute and facilitate copyright infringement. The second part is about increased penalties for all infringements. The House Judiciary Committee scheduled a hearing on the Stop Online Piracy Act for Nov. 16.
The bill has received a lot of support from the entertainment industry and leaders from both political parties. The opposition of major tech companies helps balance the playing field.
Do you think Facebook and Google can help swing the vote, or is the act an inevitability? Will Bieber and other good-faith copyright infringers pay the price? Let us know in the comments.
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