Response from Congressman Larsen

Dear Mr. Anderson:

 

Thank you for contacting me about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). I wanted to update you on my views on this important issue.
 
I am opposed to SOPA and PIPA in their current forms. I believe that these bills create unacceptable threats to free speech and free access to the internet. I have heard from many of you in Northwest Washington who are deeply concerned about the potential impacts of SOPA and PIPA. 
 
Online piracy is a serious problem that costs U.S. businesses billions of dollars. Government agencies must be empowered to stop and prosecute intellectual property thieves. But in doing so we cannot undermine freedom of speech or jeopardize the free flow of information on the internet. I will work with my colleagues to see that any final anti-online piracy legislation protects the internet and does not encroach on free speech rights. 
 
Please be assured that I will keep your thoughts in mind should I have the opportunity to vote on any legislation that would impact online piracy and internet freedom on the House floor.
 
Again, thank you for contacting me.  I encourage you to contact me in the future about this or any other issue of importance to you.

Sincerely,

Rick Larsen
United States Representative
Washington State, 2nd District

Oh, and I sent it to Patty Murray, our senator...

My Congressman...

So I wrote to my congressman today about these issues, this is what I wrote:

Dear Congressman Larsen,
My name is Steven Anderson, I am just a simple working, voting, resident of Washington and citizen of these United States. I have an issue with two bills in congress at the moment, which I'm sure you are aware of, SOPA and PIPA which will censor the web and impose harmful regulations on our American businesses. The freedoms that these bills will hinder are simple freedoms that have shaped our country and allowed us to be as prosperous as we have.

"Over a century ago Thomas Edison got the patent for a device which would "do for the eye what the phonograph does for
the ear". He called it the Kinetoscope. He was not only amongst the first to record video, he was also the first person
to own the copyright to a motion picture."

"Because of Edisons patents for the motion pictures it was close to financially impossible to create motion pictures
in the North american east coast. The movie studios therefor relocated to California, and founded what we today call
Hollywood. The reason was mostly because there was no patent.
There was also no copyright to speak of, so the studios could copy old stories and make movies out of them - like
Fantasia, one of Disneys biggest hits ever."

"So, the whole basis of this industry, that today is screaming about losing control over immaterial rights, is that they
circumvented immaterial rights. They copied (or put in their terminology: "stole") other peoples creative works,
without paying for it. They did it in order to make a huge profit. Today, they're all successful and most of the
studios are on the Fortune 500 list of the richest companies in the world. Congratulations - it's all based on being
able to re-use other peoples creative works. And today they hold the rights to what other people create.
If you want to get something released, you have to abide to their rules. The ones they created after circumventing
other peoples rules."

"The reason they are always complainting about "pirates" today is simple. We've done what they did. We circumvented the
rules they created and created our own. We crushed their monopoly by giving people something more efficient. We allow
people to have direct communication between eachother, circumventing the profitable middle man, that in some cases take
over 107% of the profits (yes, you pay to work for them).
It's all based on the fact that we're competition.
We've proven that their existance in their current form is no longer needed. We're just better than they are."

"And the funny part is that our rules are very similar to the founding ideas of the USA. We fight for freedom of speech.
We see all people as equal. We believe that the public, not the elite, should rule the nation. We believe that laws
should be created to serve the public, not the rich corporations." -THE PIRATE BAY, (K)2012, http://static.thepiratebay.org/legal/sopa.txt

I believe that, yes, piracy is not good, but where's the line? It's a gray area, who should be allowed to copy what someone else has done? When should it be paid for? When does it become public domain? Well I refer to the saying, 'there's nothing new under the sun.' Everything has been done before one way or another, every story has been told a thousand times, but thats what makes them so great. The stories we have heard over and over since we were little are familiar and comforting and make us happy. What would we have without them? The great characters of our fiction would disappear and be long forgotten like the writings in the great Library of Alexandria.

Furthermore, to push the issue past my previous point, the web and interconnectivity of todays world has made our productiveness, awareness, knowledge, and you name it increase leaps and bounds. If we put a hindrance on these methods of connection we just put a cap on what we as a society can achieve. I don't want to stop our growth, personally or interpersonally, and I imagine the leaders of the free world don't want to either. There are plenty of other options out there for ways to make money, or have the message of our government be heard. We don't have to put limitations on our freedom of speech or information than there already is.

Thank you for your time and please when voting consider this message from the little guys, the consumers, the hard working American citizen who just wants to keep this nation as great as it can be. There is more than one way to skin a cat, Mr. Larsen, and the way that SOPA and PIPA have laid it is grotesque to say the least.

Sincerely,
Steven Anderson



...any thoughts?