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Appendix
As of December 15, 2011, according to Rep. Lamar Smith in his remarks during the markup of the
bill, the following organizations had expressed their support for the bill: “There are about 150
organized supporters of H.R. 3261, and here are some of the groups that support the bill: ABC, the
AFL-CIO, American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Americans For Tax Reform,
Alliance For Safe Online Pharmacies, Comcast, NBC Universal, Copyright Alliance, Council of
Better Business Bureaus, Council of State Governments, ESPN, Major League Baseball and the
NFL, Major County Sheriffs, Motion Picture Association of America, National Association of
Manufacturers, National Cable and Telecommunications Association, National Center For Victims
of Crime, National District Attorneys Association, National Governors Association, National
League of Cities, News Corp,, Pfizer, United States Conference of Mayors, United States Chamber
of Commerce, Visa and MasterCard.” 31
GoDaddy.com, one of the organizations that testified before the House Committee on the Judiciary
and the Senate Judiciary Committee on this topic, apparently confirmed its approval of SOPA in an
op-ed article published in Politico on October 28, 2011. 32 Since then, in the wake of tremendous
protest and termination of services by their customers, GoDaddy has retracted its support of the
bill. 33
Despite mounting public opposition to SOPA, many companies and industry groups still support
the bill, 34 arguing that the losses of income to U.S. rightsholders (companies and individuals alike)
as a result of concerted counterfeiting and piracy efforts of foreign web sites are simply too great to
ignore and a solution must be found to protect innovation in the U.S. 35
b) Statements in Opposition
Vocal opponents of the PROTECT IP Act have expressed similar concerns with respect to SOPA,
stemming from a wide range of issues including how rogue sites are defined in the legislation, what
the impact may be on proposed blocking/rerouting Internet traffic, and how it may impact both
innovation and free speech. Many of these objections seem to center around the original version of
the bill introduced on October 26, 2011, instead of the current version proposed in a Manager’s
Amendment on November 18. Many of the provisions around which these complaints center have
already been removed in the current version of the bill—or are promised to be removed in the
subsequent markup of the bill.
Recent objections, including the website blackouts of Jan. 18, 2012, have focused on allegations
that the bill calls for censorship. 36 Representative Lamar Smith, Chairman of the House Committee
on the Judiciary, has published several explanations of why he is convinced that the bill would not
create such a result. 37 However, opposition to the bill on censorship grounds continued. 38 In
addition, as a result of the online protests on January 18, eight lawmakers have now withdrawn
their support for the SOPA bill. 39
Google has set up a dedicated forum for expressing its opposition to SOPA, arguing that it would
censor the Internet and slow economic growth in the U.S. 40 It supported the protest efforts that
occurred on January 18 on myriad web sites, and its “Take Action” page urges visitors to contact
their congressmen to voice their opposition to the bill. 41
Microsoft initially issued a statement in support of both SOPA and PIPA, cautioning that “Safeguards
should be included to ensure that rogue sites are identified clearly and appropriately, and
that the responsibilities of companies required to take action to ensure compliance are well defined
and their liability appropriately limited. In addition, steps should be taken to ensure that the
private right of action is not subject to abuse, and that the new actions and resulting orders do not
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