CEA Chief Calls for SOPA Movement to Block Anti-Net Proposals

The CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association said that critics of international efforts to increase regulation of the Internet need to band together like they did last year to defeat U.S. anti-piracy legislation that was strongly opposed by Internet activists and tech companies.

“The world needs a PIPA-SOPA moment,” CEA chief Gary Shapiro said discussing next month’s meeting of the International Telecommunication Union, when member countries will gather to reexamine international telecommunications rules. Shapiro was referring to last year's unprecedented protest that derailed legislation known in the Senate as the Protect IP Act, or PIPA, and in the House as the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, that aimed to crack down on piracy and counterfeiting on foreign websites. CEA and other critics argued that both bills would harm free speech and hamper innovation on the Internet. Shapiro and other tech industry representatives, along with U.S. government officials, have voiced concern about proposals that could be offered at the ITU meeting in Dubai, which begins next week and runs until Dec. 14.