Mfarhanonline Social Media News: A group of artists including Hollywood actors, Saturday Night Live comedians, comic-book authors, musicians and others signed an open letter opposing the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its sister bill in the Senate, the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). Actor Aziz Ansari from Parks & Recreation , fantasy author Neil Gaiman, and the Lonely Island comedy troupe — including comedian Andy Samberg from SNL — all signed the letter, posted on the site Stop the Wall (read the full text below). The letter expresses “serious concerns” about the two bills, calling on Congress to exercise “extreme caution” before regulating the Internet. The letter is carefully worded. It doesn’t come out definitively against SOPA or PIPA, but it does say the powers provided under them could be “easily abused.” And while the artists admit that piracy is a problem, they also say that it should not be addressed by censoring creativity and stifling innovation — stopping short of saying that SOPA and PIPA explicitly do that. The artists say that their livelihoods in large part depend on copyright law, and that piracy is “deeply unfair.” At the same time, they point out that many of them have found new fans and connect with their audiences with services like YouTube and Twitter. They fear the new bills, if they were made law, could harm those sites and others, causing “collateral damage” to legitimate users — them. “As creative professionals, we experience copyright infringement on a very personal level,” the letter reads. “We are grateful for the measures policymakers have enacted to protect our works.” “These bills would allow entire websites to be blocked without due process…. Artists and creators like us who would be! censore d as a result.” What do you think of the artists’ letter , reprinted in full below? Let us know in the comments. January 17, 2012 An open letter to Washington from Artists and Creators We, the undersigned, are musicians, actors, directors, authors, and producers. We make our livelihoods with the artistic works we create. We are also Internet users. We are writing to express our serious concerns regarding the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). As creative professionals, we experience copyright infringement on a very personal level. Commercial piracy is deeply unfair and pervasive leaks of unreleased films and music regularly interfere with the integrity of our creations. We are grateful for the measures policymakers have enacted to protect our works. We, along with the rest of society, have benefited immensely from a free and open Internet. It allows us to connect with our fans and reach new audiences. Using social media services like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, we can communicate directly with millions of fans and interact with them in ways that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. We fear that the broad new enforcement powers provided under SOPA and PIPA could be easily abused against legitimate services like those upon which we depend. These bills would allow entire websites to be blocked without due process, causing collateral damage to the legitimate users of the same services — artists and creators like us who would be censored as a result. We are deeply concerned that PIPA and SOPA’s impact on piracy will be negligible compared to the potential damage that would be caused to legitimate Internet services. Online piracy is harmful and it needs to be addressed, but not at the expense of censoring creativity, stifling innovation or preventing the creation of new, lawful digital distribution methods. We urge Congress to exercise extreme caution and ensure that the free and open Internet, upon which so many artists rely to promote and dis! tribute their work, does not become collateral damage in the process. Respectfully, Aziz Ansari Kevin Devine, Musician Barry Eisler, Author Neil Gaiman, Author Lloyd Kaufman, Filmmaker Zoë Keating, Musician The Lonely Island Daniel Lorca, Musician (Nada Surf) Erin McKeown, Musician MGMT Samantha Murphy, Musician OK Go Amanda Palmer, Musician (The Dresden Dolls) Quiet Company Trent Reznor Adam Savage, Special Effects Artist (MythBusters) Hank Shocklee, Music Producer (Public Enemy, The Bomb Squad) Johnny Stimson, Musician May 12: PIPA introduced The PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011), better known as PIPA was introduced into the Senate by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). The act's goals were described by its sponsors as protecting intellectual property and punishing foreign sites who post copyrighted material. If a site was discovered doing so, the U.S. attorney general could order U.S. based Internet service providers, search engines, payment systems and advertising networks to suspend doing business with the website. Photo courtesy Mikedish on Flickr Click here to view this gallery. Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, david_shankbone More About: artists , PIPA , protests , SOPA , stop online piracy act , trending Social Media reviews series maintain by Mayya
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