Open Letter to Congress on SOPA: Take a Breath

Sara J. Chipps of Girl Develop It speaks out against SOPA and PIPA in a protest held on January 18, 2011 in front of the offices New York Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer.

Image: Michael del Castillo

It’s not often that dozens of organizations with disparate agendas gather together under a single cause and ask Congress to think. But yesterday, February 6, that’s exactly what approximately 70 organizations, including venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, human rights groups, a group of moms and a comedy site—did and the cause that drew them together was the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

“Now is the time for Congress to take a breath, step back, and approach the issues from a fresh perspective,” the groups wrote in a joint letter addressed to Congress.

The letter asked members of Congress to take time to think about the true extent of online infringement, and to do so using “unbiased sources” and in the public’s eye.

On January 28, thousands of websites (115,000 according to the open letter) voluntarily shut down their sites in protest of the House and Senate measure designed to provide assurance to the rightful owners of online content that they will be paid for their work. The protesters argued that many of the content owners, including mainstream media groups Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America, are operating under outdated business models and in fact are stifling innovation and killing jobs.

In response to the large-scale protests, both SOPA and PIPA have been shelved indefinitely, though the search for measures to protect intellectual content without stifling innovation continues.

Still wondering what the heck SOPA and PIPA are? Click here for a helpful video.