As the House Judiciary Committee readies to consider a controversial bill that supporters say will crack down on websites pirating content, some interest groups may have a leg up on influencing the legislators.
That’s because 16 lobbyists, representing various companies and organizations favoring, opposing or watching the bill, used to work on the House panel. The committee plans to markup the measure tomorrow.
The bill, called the Stop Online Piracy Act, is hotly contested, dividing Hollywood, which wants tougher laws to protect copyrighted material, and Silicon Valley, which contends that SOPA would introduce new, uncertain liabilities for web companies ...
Continue readingLegacy media bankrolling campaigns of SOPA cosponsors
Traditional big media firms have contributed more than $5 million to the sponsors of the Stop Online Piracy Act, with California Democratic Reps. Howard Berman and Adam Schiff as the top recipients.
The bill, known as SOPA, would strengthen and extend the penalties for online copyright violations, and could force websites hosting pirated content to come down or prevent search engines from sending users their way. Legacy media companies stand to benefit if there's less unlawful movement of their content on the web, like pirated movies and songs for download.
Some of the nation's top tech companies — Facebook ...
Music, movie industries giving to Rep. pushing for copyright enforcement
The House Judiciary Committee chairman backing a bill that would allow the Justice department to force internet service providers to take down websites committing copyright infringement has leading communications companies bankrolling his campaign.
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, has seen nearly $393,000 from the TV/music/movies industry during his Congressional career and it ranks fifth among the top industries supporting him. It's legacy companies in that industry — along with other broadcasting and recording industry groups — that would benefit from stricter enforcement of pirated content that could come from Smith's H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act ...
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