Google and Silicon Valley Oppose Stop Online Piracy Act

By Barbara E. Hernandez

| Thursday, Dec 15, 2011 | Updated 10:21 AM PDT

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Google and Silicon Valley Oppose Stop Online Piracy Act

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NEW YORK - JUNE 23: Google co-founder Sergey Brin opens the internet company's new office space inside historic Chelsea Market June 23, 2008 in New York City. The new space, which is across the street from the older Google office, will house around 300 employees bringing the total number of Google employees in New York City to around 1,500. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Sergey Brin

A group of Silicon Valley bigwigs recently wrote an open letter saying pending legislation in Congress will mean censorship and the stifling of innovation. The two bills, called the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act, were both meant to curb online piracy and copyright infringement but may have more serious consequences.

According to the open letter:

These two pieces of legislation threaten to:

Require web services, like the ones we helped found, to monitor what users link to, or upload. This would have a chilling effect on innovation;

Deny website owners the right to due process of law;

Give the U.S. Government the power to censor the web using techniques similar to those used by China, Malaysia and Iran; and

Undermine security online by changing the basic structure of the Internet.

While some say this may be a self-serving move for many Silicon Valley stalwarts such as Google cofounder Sergey Brin, Reid Hoffman from LinkedIn and Jack Dorsey from Twitter and Square, it does have some Consitutional consequences, according to lawyers.

Internet law attorney Marvin Ammori said that such laws are written too broadly and could mean the shutting down of legitmate sites that "enable" infringement, including YouTube, Twitter or Facebook. Ammori also agreed with critics saying that the bills mean a curtailing of First Amendment rights.

Both sides are being fought by lobbies -- the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America are for the bills, while Silicon Valley seems to be uniting against the legistation. However, even those cynical enough to believe this is about business and not everyday people may have to decide if this is a First Amendment issue and if they should oppose the bills soon to be voted on by Congress.