The House Judiciary Committee scheduled a hearing on the Stop...

Wednesday by Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, has garnered praise and criticism from industry members, trade associations, and advocacy groups (WID Oct 27 p1). The Center for Democracy and Technology said the legislation “represents a serious threat to online innovation and to legitimate online communications tools.” A more-focused “follow-the-money” approach, “narrowly targeting clear bad actors and drying up their financial lifeblood, could reduce online infringement without risking so much damage to Internet openness, innovation, and security,” said David Sohn, CDT’s senior policy counsel. Public Knowledge said the Stop Online Piracy Act is “significantly worse” than the Senate PROTECT IP Act, S-968, which was unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in May (WID May 27 p1). “This isn’t just because it uses more expansive definitions or broader language; it makes fundamental changes to who faces liability for copyright infringement,” wrote Sherwin Siy, Public Knowledge’s deputy legal director Wednesday. The bill offers “very little to legitimate online distributors of music, movies and books; and even less to consumers who are looking to gain access to such materials in a legal manner,” said Gregory Barnes, director of government affairs for the Digital Media Association. He said the bill “is reminiscent of a B-rated movie -- clichéd script and all.” But a broad coalition of U.S. content creators from the film, music, and stage industries applauded the “proactive measures” of the Stop Online Piracy Act. The legislation “will provide U.S. law enforcement agencies with the tools to protect American intellectual property, including the films, television shows and sound recordings created by our members, from foreign rogue websites that knowingly and deliberately engage in the illegal distribution of our content for profit,” said a joint statement issued by the American Federation of Musicians, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Directors Guild of America, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and the Screen Actors Guild. Comcast/NBCUniversal called the legislation “an important step forward.” The legislation will not hinder broadband customers from accessing legal content online and will “protect the Internet as an engine of innovation and economic growth, rather than as an environment that allows digital theft and counterfeiting to thrive,” said Kyle McSlarrow, president of Comcast/NBCUniversal’s D.C. office.