Dear [constituent],
As you may know, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided not to bring the PROTECT IP Act (the Senate’s version of SOPA) up for a vote next week. And since I’ve heard from many of you about this issue, I wanted to take a moment to share why I support copyright protection legislation – as well as why I believe holding off on this bill is the right thing to do.
As someone who has worked hard to protect net neutrality, I understand as well as anyone the importance of keeping the Internet free from undue corporate influence. There are millions of Americans who rely on a free and open Internet to learn, communicate with friends and family, and do business.
At the same time, there are millions of Americans whose livelihoods rely on strong protections for intellectual property: middle-class workers – most of them union workers – in all 50 states, thousands of them here in Minnesota, working in a variety of industries from film production to publishing to software development.
If we don’t protect our intellectual property, international criminals – as well as legitimate businesses like payment processors and ad networks – will continue to profit dishonestly from the work these Americans are doing every day. And that puts these millions of jobs at serious risk.
That’s reason enough to act. But these criminals are also putting Minnesota families in danger by flooding our nation with counterfeit products – not just bootleg movies and software, but phony medications and knockoff equipment for first responders.
We cannot simply shrug off the threat of online piracy. We cannot do nothing.
I have supported the approach Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy has taken in crafting legislation to respond to the threat of online piracy – and I appreciate his leadership on this important issue.
But I’ve also been listening carefully to the debate – and to the many Minnesotans who have told me via email, Facebook, Twitter, and good old fashioned phone calls that they are worried about what this bill would mean for the future of the Internet.
Frankly, there is a lot of misinformation floating around out there: If this bill really did some of the things people have heard it would do (like shutting down YouTube), I would never have supported it.
But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take seriously the concerns people have shared. And if holding off on this legislation gives us an opportunity to take a step back and try to bring everybody back to the table, I think it’s the right thing to do. This is a difficult issue, and also an important one. It’s worth getting this right.
I strongly believe that we need to protect intellectual property – and protect the free and open Internet. I think most people, even those who have expressed concern about this particular bill, agree. And it’s my hope that we can now build a stronger consensus around how to accomplish these two important goals.
Thanks for reading. And for those of you who have written to me about this issue (even if it was an angry letter), thanks for being honest with me. I’ll always return the favor.
Al

Either way, I’m glad I read this article; we need more people spreading the word. It’s sad that the only mainstream outlets that cover some of these REAL issues are foreign media like RT. Also, in case you haven’t seen it, I recently watched a great program on Frontline from September called “Top Secret America” that examines the expansion of intelligence agencies after 2001.

Freedom!

Sorry about the delay in responding. Yep…we autoclose comments after 15 days since spam commenting was off-the-charts and even Akismet didn’t catch it all (so I was manually managing all of it).

I didn’t make this podcast (one of a handful I’ve missed in 3+ years) but probably would’ve mangled it anyway! Thanks for the clarification.

~Steve

“CES not always the greatest guide for commercial success” (CNet):
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-33363_1-57354490/ces-not-always-the-greatest-guide-for-commercial-success/

Just wanted to clear up the mystery of the one-named lawyer….no typo, most folks just know me as Davis, which yes, is my last name. And, another surprise, I’m a HER! (I can understand the default to him considering the general make-up of the profession though).

Anyway, thanks for the chuckle, and the shout out!

K.M. Davis
Davis Law Office, LLC

Question: What percent of sites are running on Expression Engine? With WordPress:

+ 14.7 percent of the top million websites in the world use it
+ 22 of every 100 active domains created in the U.S. are running WordPress.

I rarely even hear anything about Expression Engine other than you tweaking Tim and I all the time.

And of course, I can’t pass this up … Good to see you (Steve) admit the terrible WordPress security record. As you said though, it was probably good training for a coming CyberSecurity Pearl Harbor.
(For those that aren’t aware, I’m an ExpressionEngine guy so love tweaking Mr. Borsch about his WP troubles)

We’ll definitely look into that TEDx at the UofMN. Thanks for the heads-up and who knows, maybe they’ll let alums in!

~Steve

For anyone who missed the holiday bash, we showed a custom video highlighting the year at W3i. It was pretty fun to put together. The video is now posted on our blog here- http://blog.w3i.com/2011/12/16/w3is-on-fire-watch-how-team-w3i-rocked-in-2011/

Best,

Rob Weber
Co-founder
W3i

You bet I’ll be back next week…and frequently besides. Keep up the great work. You’ve set the bar A LOT higher for any other organization in the field.

As for load times, we’ve been pretty aggressively attacking this since launch, so it should get better soon. We’ve got some resource allocation to address on the servers, but it’s been tricky to do in a production environment. Hopefully in the wee hours this weekend…

I’ve also just implemented (in development, shortly rolling out) a new compression routine on our images that should knock .5M(!) off the total download size. Should help enormously. We’re also going to turn on far-future cache times once the emergency fixes slow down, which should make YSlow much happier.

Check back next week to keep us honest, k?

Thanks again for the article and the links!