An open letter to Senator Casey (and other SOPA/PIPA supporters)

The Honorable Robert P. Casey, Jr.
393 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Casey:

Although I have generally been not only a constituent but a supporter of yours, it was with some concern that I read about your support of the so-called “Protect IP Act“, or “PIPA” (S. 968) legislation, currently being reviewed in committee. While efforts to reduce IP content piracy can indeed be useful, S. 968 (as well as its counterpart in the House, H.R. 3261: “SOPA“), are dangerously broad in scope — and furthermore, would not even be effective at their stated goals of reducing online piracy.

Specifically, sir, such bills will restrict the activities of legal, productive websites far more than they will restrict the activities of online pirates. Although I am not an expert on the mechanics of BitTorrent, TOR, and similar technologies, even I can think of a half-dozen effective methods to counteract DNS filtering and so-called “deep packet inspection.” This technology will not do what it is claimed — pirates have been circumventing filters like this for years — but such restrictions will have very harmful side effects on legal, useful sites such as Wikipedia and YouTube.

Such invasive activities as S.968 proposes will, as many Internet advocates have noted, have a “chilling effect” on the majority of legal, online content. When even politically neutral sites such as Wikipedia deem the issue important enough to warrant a 24-hour blackout of the English language edition of the site, it becomes apparent that this is an important issue with the potential to cause great harm to the fundamental freedoms the Internet affords.

Senator, the open Internet is a unique, precious resource — in exactly the way Gutenberg’s invention of the movable-type press was. The freedom of expression and unimpeded exchange of information that it provides are vital to not only freedom, but the intellectual economy of the modern world.

I strongly urge you to withdraw your support of this bill, and pledge to vote against it should it come up for consideration by the full Senate or any committee on which you serve.

Respectfully yours,
M. Eric Carr
Philadelphia, PA
eric@paleotechnologist.net

 

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