SAN ANTONIO – As Congress prepares to head back to Washington after a long winter break some members are headed for a big fight, not with each other, but with much of the internet industry and a large number of Internet users who oppose a piece of legislation called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) - the chair of the House Judiciary Committee - introduced SOPA last October and quickly stirred the internet and blogosphere into a tizzy. Smith's bill aims to expand protections for America's intellectual property and fight the illegal distribution of counterfeit goods through foreign websites.
"The problem is a $100 billion problem. That's how much we think the theft amounts to of American goods, American products and stealing our inventions," Smith said. "We are targeting illegal, foreign websites that primarily engage in illegal activity. No domestic website has anything to worry about."
Despite that disclaimer, many domestic website operators are worried. They fear the bill in it's current form, could change the internet as we know it and lead to censorship. A point Congressman Smith disputes.
"There's nothing about censorship in this bill whatsoever. We respect the First Amendment," Smith said. "I'm a great believer in protecting and defending the Constitution. Now when I say that at the same time there's nothing wrong with going after illegal behavior."
Smith said his bill will allow the government to target foreign "rogue" sites that are primarily dedicated to illegal activity. The Act would extend enforcement of the same property rights protections that apply to domestic sites to those that operate abroad.
Once a "rogue" site is identified the Justice Department would need to get a court order before directing any entity to stop providing access to an illegal website.
"These are online pirates. They are stealing our property. Sometimes it's property you can touch, other times it's intellectual property you can't touch," Smith said. "Anybody involved in any kind of intellectual property, anybody who has a company whose products are being counterfeited and stolen by foreign websites is going to benefit."
Smith said the bill has bipartisan support and is also supported by more than 120 organizations including the U.S. Chamber of Commmerce, AFL-CIO and many more.
At the same time the bill is being opposed by numerous tech companies including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and more.
The CEO of San Antonio based Rackspace, Lanham Napier, has also come out against SOPA in its current form.
"Online piracy is a complicated problem. The technical remedy in this bill I think introduces more harm than good," Napier said. "I don't think it's going to stop piracy. It's not going to make it easier to stop online pirates, and we're battling these pirates every day, so I think we need to keep looking for a better solution."
Napier said his company invests millions of dollars every year combating online pirates. He supports efforts to further reduce digital piracy, just not SOPA.
Napier said Smith's bill is flawed in that certain provisions could open up new security risks that could be exploited by hackers. He also worries unnecessary regulation of the internet could stifle innovation and hurt the economy.
"I think anytime we we're doing things that inhibit innovation on the web we're putting ourselves at risk," Napier said. "When we think about how to help the country out of the economic troubles we're having and how to get more innovation and make the internet perform better is an awesome outcome so this is what I want to visit with them about."
Napier is headed to Washington D.C. next week to voice his concerns about SOPA and offer his opinions on how to make it better. He will be joined by other leaders from the internet industry.
"There's probably not an easy, snap-your-fingers solution on this so it's about getting enough smart people in the room and in the process thinking about this deeply to figure out what to do," Napier said. "We have an obligation to help these folks draft good legislation so that's what we're going to do."
Congressman Smith welcomes their input.
"We welcome their support. We welcome their help," Smith said. "If they have specific suggestions as to how we can improve the bill we will certainly take those under consideration."