Copyright Office will endorse SOPA anti-piracy billby Declan McCullagh November 15, 2011 6:53 PM PST
The head of the influential U.S. Copyright Office plans to offer an unqualified endorsement tomorrow of a controversial Hollywood-backed copyright bill.
Maria Pallante will tell a congressional committee that the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, is "essential" to thwarting online piracy.
Copyright Office director Maria Pallante says SOPA copyright bill will ensure that "our law keeps pace with infringers"
Copyright Office director Maria Pallante says SOPA copyright bill will ensure that "our law keeps pace with infringers"
(Credit: Copyright Office)
A copy of Pallante's testimony obtained by CNET describes SOPA as "the next step in ensuring that our law keeps pace with infringers." (Part of her job is to provide advice to Congress on copyright law.)
"It is my view that if Congress does not continue to provide serious responses to online piracy, the U.S. copyright system will ultimately fail," Pallante's testimony says.
Pallante and representatives from Pfizer, the Motion Picture Association of America, the AFL-CIO, and Mastercard, all of whom support the bill, will be testifying tomorrow before the House Judiciary committee.
The only dissenting witness will be Katherine Oyama, a policy counsel at Google. A long list of companies, non-profit groups, law professors, and other organizations buttressed Google's arguments today in a flurry of letters to Capitol Hill that raised concerns about SOPA and the speed it was moving through the House.
SOPA, which was introduced last month in the House to the applause of lobbyists for Hollywood and other large content holders, is designed to make allegedly copyright-infringing Web sites, sometimes called "rogue" Web sites, virtually disappear from the Internet.
More:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57325554-281/copyright-office-will-endorse-sopa-anti-piracy-bill/
