Internet experts will weigh in on SOPA

INTERNET EXPERTS are finally getting a chance to testify to the US Congress against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

Debate about SOPA has so far been mostly driven - or rather, prevented - by the big media companies and their lobbyists that want to rush it into law. However, technical experts will finally get the opportunity to voice their concerns.

"They said 'bring in the nerds,' so I'm headed to DC to testify about SOPA/PIPA," tweeted Reddit co-founder and technology investor Alexis Ohanian last night.

"I will be testifying to Congress on January 18th about the engineering & security implications of PIPA/SOPA," added networking security professional Dan Kaminsky as he confirmed his attendance.

The congressional hearing will take place on 18 January, and will see witnesses testify in front of the US House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Other invited guests will include Lanham Napier, CEO of Rackspace Hosting, Michael Macleod-Ball, chief of staff at the American Civil Liberties Union, and Dr Leonard Napolitano, director of the Center for Computer Sciences & Information Technology at Sandia National Laboratories.

"An open Internet is crucial to American job creation, government operations, and the daily routines of Americans from all walks of life," said House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chairman Darrell Issa as he announced the panel. "The public deserves a full discussion about the consequences of changing the way Americans access information and communicate on the Internet today."

Publisher and open source advocate, Tim O'Reilly has also been talking about SOPA with US legislators, and has promised to repeat his advice later on Google+, so we will keep an eye out for that.

Speaking of @NancyPelosi, I had a great opportunity to bend her ear about #SOPA yesterday. Will write more soon on Google+.

— Tim O'Reilly (@timoreilly) January 9, 2012

There is a long list of opponents to SOPA, and a great whack of them have signed a open letter to the US Congress in which they make no bones about how bad they think it is.

"The US government has regularly claimed that it supports a free and open Internet, both domestically and abroad. We cannot have a free and open Internet unless its naming and routing systems sit above the political concerns and objectives of any one government or industry," said the letter, which was signed by 83 internet pioneers and technology luminaries including Vint Cerf, co-designer of TCP/IP, Paul Vixie, author of BIND, and Jim Gettys, editor of the HTTP 1.1 protocol standard.

"Senators, Congressmen, we believe the Internet is too important and too valuable to be endangered in this way, and implore you to put these bills aside."

There is fuller coverage of opposition to SOPA by US venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and the community of internet technologists available as well, if you're interested. µ