The founders of Google, Twitter, Yahoo! eBay and other Internet giants expressed concern to the US Congress over legislation intended to crack down on online piracy.


 They warned that the proposed legislation will give Washington the power to censor the Internet, much like that employed by China, Malaysia and Iran.


 The Stop Online Piracy Act has received some bipartisan support in the House of Representatives and is the House version of a bill introduced in the Senate known as the Theft of Intellectual Property Act, or Protect IP Act.


 The legislation has received the backing of Hollywood, the music industry, the Business Software Alliance, the National Association of Manufacturers, the US Chamber of Commerce and other groups.


 <img align="right" alt="NONE" height="320" src="http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/294/d80154ea73c2885f48095994a1de83d3.jpg" width="240"/>
 But it has come under fire from digital rights and free speech organisations for allegedly paving the way for US authorities to shut down websites, including foreign sites, without due process and threatening the architecture of the Web.


 The founders of the leading Internet companies added their voices to the chorus of opposition against the bills in an open letter to Congress published Wednesday in several US newspapers, including
 
 The Washington Post
 
 ,
 
 The New York Times
 
 and
 
 The Wall Street Journal
 
 .


 "We've all had the good fortune to found Internet companies and nonprofits in a regulatory climate that promotes entrepreneurship, innovation, the creation of content and free expression online," they said in the letter.


 "However, we're worried that the Protect IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act - which started out as well-meaning efforts to control piracy online - will undermine that framework," they said.


 The legislation threatens to "require Web services, like the ones we helped found, to monitor what users link to, or upload," they said, warning that this would have a "chilling effect on innovation."


 
 
 
 


 Deny right of due process


 They said the bills would also "deny website owners the right to due process" and "give the US government the power to censor the Web using techniques similar to those used by China, Malaysia and Iran."


 "We urge Congress to think hard before changing the regulation that underpins the Internet," they said. "Let's not deny the next generation of entrepreneurs and founders the same opportunities that we all had."


 Signatories to the letter included Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Twitter co-founders Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams, Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake, Yahoo! co-founders David Filo and Jerry Yang, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.


 
 


 - AFP


 <blockquote>
 </blockquote>


 
 An Open Letter to Washington
 


 We&rsquo;ve all had the good fortune to found Internet companies and nonprofits in a regulatory climate that promotes entrepreneurship, innovation, the creation of content and free expression online.


 However we&rsquo;re worried that the Protect IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act &mdash; which started out as well-meaning efforts to control piracy online &mdash; will undermine that framework.


 These two pieces of legislation threaten to:


 <ul>
 <li>
 Require web services, like the ones we helped found, to monitor what users link to, or upload. This would have a chilling effect on innovation;
 </li>
 </ul>
 <ul>
 <li>
 Deny website owners the right to due process of law;
 </li>
 </ul>
 <ul>
 <li>
 Give the US government the power to censor the web using techniques similar to those used by China, Malaysia and Iran; and
 </li>
 </ul>
 <ul>
 <li>
 Undermine security online by changing the basic structure of the Internet.
 </li>
 </ul>


 We urge Congress to think hard before changing the regulation that underpins the Internet. Let&rsquo;s not deny the next generation of entrepreneurs and founders the same opportunities that we all had.


 Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz


 Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google


 Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and Square


 Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr and Hunch


 David Filo, co-founder of Yahoo!


 Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn


 Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post


 Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube


 Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive and co-founder of Alexa Internet


 Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal


 Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist


 Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay


 Biz Stone, co-founder of Obvious and Twitter


 Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation


 Evan Williams, co-founder of Blogger and Twitter


 Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo!




 
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The founders of Google, Twitter and Yahoo! have expressed concern to the US Congress over legislation  intended to crack down on online piracy.


Internet giants tell US not to follow M'sia

~RM12

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