Protect IP Act

Protect IP Act (PIPA or S.968) also known as Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 is a proposed legislation introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy in the United States Senate Committee on Judiciary on May 12, 2011. The bill is supported by 40 Senators including Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah),Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa),Chris Coons (D-Del.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). Under the provisions of the bill, the Department of Justice (DOJ) receives the authority to request for a court order against suspected foreign websites dedicated in infringing activities. The Attorney General will then be able to issue directives to search engines, domain name registry, registrars, internet advertising companies and financial transaction providers to stop doing business with rogue websites.

The proponents of the bill stated that PIPA aims to protect consumers, investments and the jobs associated with the development of brands and contents developed by American companies. They also said that the bill will send a strong message that the United States strong protects its Intellectual Property rights against entities operating infringing websites and selling or distributing pirated and counterfeit products.

The proposed Protect IP Act just like the Support Online Piracy Act introduced at the House of Representatives is a bipartisan legislation. It has its own supporters as well as opponents. The members of the Senate is scheduled to vote for the passage of PIPA on January 24, 2012.

Supporters

The supporters of the bill said that PIPA is a significant legislation to stop foreign own websites from gaining profits by selling or distributing counterfeited products and it will also protect consumers. Supporters of the legislation include: Official statements from the PIPA supporters can be found here

• Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA)
• National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO)
• Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA)
• Directors Guild of America (DGA)
• American Federation of Musicians (AFM)
• American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)
• International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)
• Screen Actors Guild (SAG)
• International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT)
• Nashville Songwriters Association International
• Songwriters Guild of America
• NBC Universal
• Viacom
• National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA)
• Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
• Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI)
• Macmillan Publishers
• Acushnet
• Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
• Copyright Alliance
• U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Oppositions

PIPA it not supported by many individuals, organizations and large technology companies, internet engineers and security experts, venture capitalist and civil libertarian communities and internet users because of the proposed strategies to be used against suspected infringing websites.

Senator Ron Wyden Actions Against PIPA

Senator Ron Wyden promised that he will filibuster in the Senate floor against the bill. According to him, "I will be working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle over the next month to explain the basis for this widespread concern, and I intend to follow through on a commitment that I made more than a year ago, to filibuster this bill when the Senate returns in January." Wyden is proposing the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) as an alternative legislation to resolve the issues raised under SOPA and PIPA that might cause damage to the present internet architecture. OPEN also aims to resolve IP infringement but it will not use black listing and censorship to protect intellectual property right instead it will will expand the capability of ITC to investigate infringement.

Net Coalition Against PIPA

The Net Coalition led by Markham Erickson is composed of different companies, web founders, public interest groups, non-profit and advocacy organizations and think tanks, industry associations, websites and online service providers, internet engineers and cybersecurity experts, academia and many other organizations. Below is a partial list of members from the net Net Coalition. A complete list can be found here

• AOL
• eBay
• Etsy
• Facebook
• foursquare
• Google
• LinkedIn
• Mozilla
• OpenDNS
• PayPal
• Twitter
• Wikimedia Foundation
• Yahoo!
• Zynga Game Network
• Computer Communications Industry Association
• Consumer Electronics Association
• Engine Advocacy
• Entertainment Consumers Association
• Creative Commons
• Tumblr

Security and Technical Concerns

In May 2011, internet security experts namely Steve Crocker, CEO of Shinkuro Inc., and vice-chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers; David Dagon, DNS post-doctoral researcher at Georgia Institute of Technology; Dan Kaminsky, security researcher for Fortue 500 companies such as Cisco and Microsoft; Danny McPherson, Chief Security Officer for Verisign and Paul Vixie, founder of Internet Systems Consortium sent a White Paper to the members of the Senate explaining how PIPA's DNS related provisions will cause harmful effects to the security and technical stability of the current internet architecture. They encourage lawmakers to scrap the DNS filtering provisions---Section 3(d)(II)(A)(ii) as stipulated in the proposed bill because it is not compatible with the end-to-end implementations of DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC), a DNS security extension which allows certain information to be signed cryptographically providing secure authentication of Internet assets.