Further thoughts on SOPA, and why Congress shouldn’t listen to lobbyists

Colleen Taylor of GigaOM interviewed me yesterday by phone on the subject of why I’m opposed to SOPA. Rather than the usual comments about the potential harm to the internet, I focused on the harm to the very content industry that has proposed the law. I highlighted three issues:

Piracy is not the real problem. It’s a symptom of market failure

SOPA protects the wrong people. We need to encourage innovative businesses, not protect those who are unwilling to adapt to new technology

SOPA ignores history. Storied American publishers began as “pirates” in the eyes of the British, yet America grew up to be the largest copyright market in the world.

Read the article: http://gigaom.com/2012/01/13/tim-oreilly-why-im-fighting-sopa/