Approximately 70 grass-roots groups, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, human rights groups, communities of color, and Internet companies including Reddit, Mozilla, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, Open Congress, and Human Rights Watch, have sent an open letter to Congress asking it to put the brakes on intellectual property lawmaking in the wake of the massive backlash against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect-IP Act (PIPA).
The letter says that “now is the time for Congress to take a breath, step back, and approach the issues from a fresh perspective,” and that Congress should take into account the wide variety of concerns that have been expressed by a diversity of groups over IP law and the internet. The letter accuses Congress of “focusing exclusively on areas where some rights holders believe the law is too weak” — more specifically; it’s accused of privileging the concerns of select groups, like the MPAA and RIAA, which have worked diligently to peddle laws like SOPA and PIPA in Congress.
