Legislation to combat online piracy won’t be supported if it encourages censorship, undermines cybersecurity or disrupts the structure of the Internet, the Obama administration said today. The statement by three White House technology officials was issued in response to online petitions on legislative proposals to combat online piracy. The movie and music industries support such legislation as a means of cracking down on theft.
“While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet,” Aneesh Chopra, Victoria Espinel and Howard Schmidt wrote in a blog post on the White House website.
