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Law Professors On SOPA and PIPA: Don't Break the Internet

An anonymous reader writes "Law professors Mark Lemley, David S. Levine, and David G. Post have just published a piece on the PROTECT IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act. In Don't Break the Internet, they argue that the two bills — intended to counter online copyright and trademark infringement — 'share an underlying approach and an enforcement philosophy that pose grave constitutional problems and that could have potentially disastrous consequences for the stability and security of the Internet's addressing system, for the principle of interconnectivity that has helped drive the Internet's extraordinary growth, and for free expression.' They write, 'These bills, and the enforcement philosophy that underlies them, represent a dramatic retreat from this country's tradition of leadership in supporting the free exchange of information and ideas on the Internet. At a time when many foreign governments have dramatically stepped up their efforts to censor Internet communications, these bills would incorporate into U.S. law a principle more closely associated with those repressive regimes: a right to insist on the removal of content from the global Internet, regardless of where it may have originated or be located, in service of the exigencies of domestic law.'"

2 of 283 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Is it just me... by TheReaperD · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm not that good of a liar, sorry. :(

    --
    "Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
  2. Re:Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... by reboot246 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Aye, but their professional killers (the military) are on our side! The military is sworn to protect the Constitution from ALL enemies, both foreign and domestic. They're not sworn to protect a government that wipes its ass with the Constitution.