Engine Advocacy, a entrepreneurial coalition whose mission is to “create an environment where technological innovation and entrepreneurship thrive by educating, collaborating, and innovating startups in shaping policy,” has gathered together a list of important tech figures who all voice opposition to the current SOPA/PIPA legislation.
204 “entrepreneurs, founders, CEOs and executives” have all signed a letter to the United States Congress urging them to reject the Stop Online Piracy Act.
Included in the signers are Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley, Reddit’s Erik Martin, and Techmeme’s Gabe Rivera – among other industry names from companies like Zynga, Etsy, and Mozilla.
The main plea in the letter? Work with us on effective copyright legislation, not against us.
Check it out in its entirety below:
The letter mentions the fact that the same group wrote to Congress back in September voicing their concerns about the legislation. They spelled out three main problems that they had with the bill as it stood:
- The notion of sites “dedicated to infringing activities” is vague and ripe for abuse, particularly when combined with a private right of action for rightsholders
- The bill would create significant burdens for smaller tech companies.
- Breaking DNS will harm our ability to build new, safe, and secure services.
“Innovation in the form of more content tools, platforms and services is the right way to address piracy — while also creating new jobs and fueling economic growth. Entrepreneurs like us can help do that; PIPA can’t,” said the previous letter. Well said.
High profile companies have already come out against SOPA, including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, and AOL. This letter shows the true startup/entrepreneurial opposition to a misguided bill that could do quite a bit of harm to the web we know and love.
