Berners-Lee spoke against the SOPA and PIPA legislation being proposed in the United States Congress. According to him, the legislation threatens the openness of the internet and it should be stopped. ''"The laws have been put together to allow an industry body to ask the government to turn off a web site and the government can make people turn off the site without trial. There are times when that could be very powerful and damaging, like before an election, and it is crossing a line and we have to protect the internet as an open space, we have to respect it."''<ref>[http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2139846/tim-berners-lee-hits-sopa-pipa Tim Berners-Lee hits out at SOPA and PIPA]</ref>
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Berners-Lee spoke against the SOPA and PIPA legislation being proposed in the United States Congress. According to him, the legislation threatens the openness of the internet and it should be stopped. ''"The laws have been put together to allow an industry body to ask the government to turn off a web site and the government can make people turn off the site without trial. There are times when that could be very powerful and damaging, like before an election, and it is crossing a line and we have to protect the internet as an open space, we have to respect it."''<ref>[http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2139846/tim-berners-lee-hits-sopa-pipa Tim Berners-Lee hits out at SOPA and PIPA]</ref> During a press conference held at W3C, Berners-Lee said that the fear of the music industry and other organizations supporting SOPA and PIPA that their business model isn't working should not be allowed to be used as a reason to upset the openness of the internet. He also added that they should not be allowed to ''"take away the rule that you should only punish someone after appropriate court proceedings."''He also added that he supports different platforms that allows people to pay for music online and different ways for content creators to get their money back.<ref>[http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/04/berners-lee-dont-let-record-labels-upset-web-openness.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss? Berners-Lee: Don't let record labels upset web openness]</ref>