ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® is bringing 15 venture capitalists specializing in Internet innovation to Washington on October 27, to tell members of Congress first-hand how the PROTECT IP Act would undermine the vital web economy.
The list of venture capitalists set to meet with members of Congress and their staff tomorrow includes Brad Burnham and Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures; Bijan Sabet, Spark Capital; Mike Masnick, Floor64; Derek Dukes, Dipity; David Ulevitch, OpenDNS; Slava Rubin, IndieGoGo; Zack Rosen, Chapter Three LLC; and Derek Parham, independent angel investor. Many of these venture capitalists sent a letter to Congress in June outlining their objections to the legislation.
“The PROTECT IP Act would kill jobs and innovation and slow down one of the few bright spots of economy,” said CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro, who today devoted his Forbes column to the issues with the legislation. “We hope these entrepreneurs’ unique views of how to stimulate innovation in a downtrodden economy will resonate with Congress and lead to meaningful changes in the bill.”
The PROTECT IP Act, formally known as the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act, would allow copyright owners simply to accuse a website of infringement, which could lead to that site being shut down by court order and wiped clean from the Internet. Any website would be subject to liability, and non-infringing sites could be inadvertently shut down under the proposal. The law is so far-reaching that it would force Internet providers to block all access to the allegedly illegal site.
“The notoriously litigious content industry could simply accuse a site that it is selling a product that could ‘enable or facilitate’ a copyright infringement, thereby allowing accusations to shut down sites vital to the Internet economy,” Shapiro concluded. “This scenario is unacceptable and could lead to mass shut downs of websites and Internet-enabled services.”
(Source: www.businesswire.com)
