Over 100 law professors just singed a letter opposing the “PROTECT-IP Act.” They point out that the act suppresses speech, breaks the infrastructure of the internet and moves the US from a country that champions free speech to one that censors and restricts access to informaion the way china does. Here is a short taste of Section 3:

3. Undermining United States’ leadership in supporting and defending free speech and the free exchange of information on the Internet: The Act represents a retreat from the United States’ strong support of freedom of expression and the free exchange of information and ideas on the Internet. At a time when many foreign governments have dramatically stepped up their efforts to censor Internet communications, the Act would incorporate into U.S. law – for the first time – a principle more closely associated with those repressive regimes: a right to insist on the removal of content from the global Internet, regardless of where it may have originated or be located, in service of the exigencies of domestic law. China, for example, has (justly) been criticized for blocking free access to the Internet with its Great Firewall. But even China doesn’t demand that search engines outside China refuse to index or link to other Web sites outside China. The Act does just that.

The full letter is up on scribd:
PROTECT-IP Letter, Final

I fully support the position my fellow law professors have taken in this letter.

Brian Rowe

Information Privacy Law Professor – Seattle University Law

Policy, Law, and Ethics in Information Management – University of Washington’s Information School