Earlier This Week Public Interest Groups Pointed to a Media Matters for America Study Showing That Most of the Major Networks C

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Earlier This Week Public Interest Groups Pointed to a Media Matters for America Study Showing That Most of the Major Networks C

Earlier this week public interest groups pointed to a Media Matters for America study showing that most of the major networks — ABC, CBS, Fox News, MSNBC and NBC — have failed to cover opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). Online piracy is definitely a problem. But these bills would do little to solve it. They’re the latest effort in Hollywood’s Sisyphean quest to close the open Internet — and slow down the kinds of online innovation that threaten the old-school media masters. The parent companies of these networks are used to getting what they want in Washington. Collectively these companies (CBS Corp., Comcast, Disney and News Corp.) have contributed a total of $55,229,497 to political campaigns, and have spent more than $250,000,000 — that’s a quarter billion dollars — on lobbying government officials (look no further than the effect companies like Comcast had on the FCC’s watered-down Net Neutrality rules to see what corporate cash can do to public policy). Here’s a breakdown by company (these and the above numbers come courtesy of the Sunlight Foundation’s excellent Influence Explorer): Company Total campaign contributions Total lobbyist spending CBS Corp. $1,191,253 $26,613,000 Comcast Corp. $24,823,283 $81,457,323 Disney $21,064,987 $57,581,991 News Corp. $8,149,974 $61,239,000 These companies aren’t flushing dollars down the toilet; they’re investing in Washington with the expectation that, when bills they like come before their beneficiaries in Congress, the vote will go the “right” way. Cue SOPA and PIPA. Regardless of their political leanings, these companies’ news networks have a duty to report the news. Let’s hold them accountable and urge them to end the SOPA blackout. .

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(US Innovation) Online Piracy Act of 2011
Insight Stop (U.S. Innovation) Online Piracy Act of 2011: OCTOBER 27, 2011 Yesterday the text for the Stop Online Piracy Act of 2011 was released, instantly causing an enormous, justified, uproar from online communities globally. If passed, this bill threatens to suffocate US innovation in technology, jeopardize the free flow of information online, and create further capital uncertainty for the our most innovative domestic companies. Bill Overview The bill is headed for the House of Representatives now to be heard by the House Judiciary Committee on November 16th. The authors, Representatives Lamar Smith (R-TX), John Conyers (D-MI), Bob Goodlatte (R- VA), and Howard Berman (D-CA) intended for the Stop Online Piracy Act to increase the government’s ability to disable websites deemed “foreign infringing sites.” A foreign infringing site is any “US Directed Site” that actively breaks the terms of a US law, agreement, or copyright. While this bill targets foreign sites, it applies to all sites that are “US Directed,” in other words, any site that provides content accessable by a US consumer. Net Neutrality: Enabling a Free Exchange of Information Net neutrality, in the simplest form, prohibits Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from restricting consumer’s access to information on the Internet based on content. This means that ISPs cannot block information, leaving consumers free to make informed decisions about their own online usage. While net neutrality only covers lawful content, the threat posed by the Stop Online Piracy Act is contained in a clause that allows immunity for any ISPs, search engines, domain registries, or similar gatekeepers with reasonable belief that the content is a foreign infringing site Enabling “Reasonable Doubt” as a Competitive Tool The online space is ripe for innovation because information is easily accessable and the barriers to entry are low.
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