Google's Schmidt slams proposed US online copyright legislation

PROPOSED LEGISLATION in the US to impose online copyright enforcement has been slammed by Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who said the bills would lead to censorship of the internet.

The legislation is called the PROTECT IP Act in the US Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act in the US House of Representatives.

The two bills, intended to combat copyright infringement of movies and music, propose that copyright holders and law enforcement be given added powers to blacklist web sites. Search engines, payment collectors and others would also be required to block access to accused web sites.

According to Reuters, Schmidt said during an appearance at the MIT Sloan School of Management that the proposed solutions are "draconian". He added, "There's a bill that would require [internet service providers] to remove URLs from the Web, which is also known as censorship last time I checked."

But this doesn't mean Schmidt is a fan of copyright infringement. Hollywood studios have a legitimate problem, Schmidt was careful to add, as increasing trading of illegally copied movies threatens their revenue.

He said, "Their business models are threatened by theft. We don't endorse it. Please don't do it. If you're doing it, stop. I hope that's very clear."

The Google CEO recommended regulations based on tracing payments made to web sites offering illegal copies of copyrighted materials.

A group of companies including Google, AOL, Ebay, Facebook, Yahoo and Twitter have already written to lawmakers to oppose the bills. They said the measures are a "serious risk" to the industry's "innovation and job creation" as well as to US cyber security.

In the UK, a "traffic lights" system has been proposed as part of industry measures to discourage copyright infringement.

Frances Lowe, director of regulatory and corporate affairs at the Performing Rights Society for Music said at a Westminster e-forum that traffic lights could create the distinction between licensed and unlicensed content and tell the user if a web site is "rogue" before they click on it.

Google has disagreed with the traffic lights idea, saying that it would want to work with rights holders to promote "good" web sites instead. µ