When I started to learn about SOPA and the Protect IP Act that were being considered in the House and the Senate, I was saddened to see that both of my Senators Klobuchar and Franken were supporters and co-sponsors of it. I wrote a short letter to Franken about my dislike for Protect IP and I got a letter back from his office which seemed to have as one of the main reasons for his support of it being the protection of American jobs. So in crafting a reply to that argument I did quite a bit of research. With that research I ended up creating a lengthy reply that I think helps to show while Protect IP may be designed to protect some industries and jobs in them, it also as it is currently written will have quite a negative impact on many other industries and jobs. The results of what I found in my research are below.
If you want to see a PDF of this piece with all the footnotes and bibliography, you can get it at my website Slashgenre.com
Let me make clear I am not against better enforcement of copyright, as long as it is done in a fair and just way both for the copyright holder and the accused party so that they have reasonable means to contest it if they feel they are wrongfully accused of infringement. Any new bill should balance the need of the copyright holder and potential new business' ability to innovate without there being overburdened with legal worry. After looking into SOPA and Protect IP they do not seem to fit into that criteria.
From my research I have seen evidence and opinions from lawyers, professors, and others questioning the constitutionality of Protect IP and SOPA, but that is not the case I will be trying to make in this post. As I wrote above the main reason Senator Franken is supporting Protect IP from what I gather is the protection of American jobs that are harmed by copyright infringement/theft such as in creative industries like music, movies and television to name just a few examples. With that in mind I will take a greater focus at the harm to American jobs in other technology related industries by this bill that could outweigh or negate the jobs potentially helped by these bills.
The first industry that would be effected that I want to highlight is the internet hosting industry. First some background information and numbers to provide context. The hosting industry is a “very significant component of the 46 billon dollar internet infrastructure market.” The hosting industry is growing at an average of 20% year after year. The hosting industry as a whole is predominately made up of small to medium sized businesses with them making up 81.4% of the hosting industry. The hosting industry helps to directly and indirectly create at least 15,000 new jobs each year. With this in mind the letter from the Save Hosting Coalition says that “Under PIPA, the process required to respond to litigation or a complaint would likely absorb an average small host’s entire yearly profit.” As the letter points out and from what interpretations I have read elsewhere under Protect IP the hosting industry can reasonably be considered within the term “dedicated to infringing activities.” Because of that the hosting companies themselves under Protect IP would “face the same liability as those actually engaging in the activity.” If the businesses faced those potential legal and administrative cost it is plain to see how much harder it would be for them to continue operating and take away from their core business of helping customers host their content on the internet. The final point is that Protect IP would very likely effect the hosting industries ability to attract and maintain their current hosting customers that are from outside the U.S. who choose to use U.S. companies for their hosting infrastructure.
I have two more parts that I address in my piece. One is looking at how SOPA/Protect IP would impact angel investors/venture capitalists willingness to invest in new start ups. The other section is about how Protect IP/SOPA could more broadly affect technology companies, and new tech companies that help drive innovation.
If you want to see the rest of my piece please check it out at my website Slashgenre.com
You can check out my personal site here Mattpollari.com