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Five major SOPA supporters

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act or PIPA, would allow the US government to seek a court order and even shut down websites that contain content or links “committing or facilitating online piracy.”  Moreover, advertisers and Internet service providers would be banned from doing business with violators.

However, payment and advertising networks, search engines or service providers that take voluntary action to redress detected violations – by terminating businesses with transgressor sites or comply with the law – will be granted immunity from liability charges.

On Sept. 22, 2011, more than 350 trade associations, professional and labor organizations, and businesses signed a letter urging Congress to enact legislation to stop “rogue sites” from copyright infringement.

Here are five key SOPA and PIPA supporters:

1. Motion Picture Association of America

Chris Usher
U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, (D) of Conn. discusses the latest developments on finance reform on "Face The Nation" in Washington, May 9, 2010.

  • By Michail Vafeiadis Contributor

In response to Wednesday’s anti-SOPA blackouts on Wikipedia and other sites, Chris Dodd, the chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), released a statement calling the blackouts a “gimmick” and “an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use their services.”

The former senator, who was appointed to lead the Association in March 2011, criticized the blackout sites’ action as punishment for elected officials who strive to protect American jobs from “foreign criminals”. 

“Only days after the White House and chief sponsors of the legislation responded to the major concern expressed by opponents and then called for all parties to work cooperatively together, some technology business interests are resorting to stunts that punish their users or turn them into their corporate pawns, rather than coming to the table to find solutions to a problem that all now seem to agree is very real and damaging,” Dodd said.

MPAA, which includes the Paramount Pictures Corporation, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Warner Bros.,  and Sony Pictures Entertainment, says that it works to safeguard the interests of the American motion picture, home video and television industries around the globe. 

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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