Dear Entrepreneur,
If you’d still like to sign this document
Because this is such an important issue, we’re going to leave the signing period open, so we can help register as many concerned entrepreneurs as possible.
To Members of the United States Congress:
The undersigned are 160 entrepreneurs, founders, CEOs and executives who have been involved in 349 technology start-ups, and who have created over 65,000 jobs directly through our companies and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, more through the technologies we invented, funded, brought to market and made mainstream. We write today urging you to reject S.968, the PROTECT IP Act, also known as “PIPA.” We appreciate the stated purpose of the bill, but we fear that if PIPA is allowed to become law in its present form, it will hurt economic growth and chill innovation in legitimate services that help people create, communicate, and make money online.
It is a truism that small businesses create significant economic growth and jobs, but it is more accurate to say that new businesses, including tech start-ups, are most important.[1] The Internet is a key engine of today’s economy,[2] and much of its economic contribution is attributable to companies that did not even exist 10 or even 5 years ago. The Internet has also created new opportunities for artists and other content creators -- today, there is more content being created by more people on more platforms (including some of our businesses) than ever before.
We are not opposed to copyright or the bill’s intent, but we do not think this bill will actually fulfill copyright’s purpose of encouraging innovation and creativity. While the bill will create uncertainty for many legitimate businesses and in turn undermine innovation and creativity on those services, the dedicated pirates who use and operate “rogue” sites will simply migrate to platforms that conceal their activities.
Our concerns include the following:
PIPA provides a new weapon against legitimate businesses and “rogue” sites alike, and the concern in this context is not merely historical or theoretical. Recent press reports noted that advertising giant WPP’s GroupM subsidiary had put together a list of 2,000 sites that were declared to be “supporting piracy,” on which none of its advertising would be allowed to appear. That list - which was put together with suggestions from GroupM clients - includes Vibe.com, the online version of the famed Vibe Magazine, founded by Quincy Jones, and a leading publication for the hip hop and R&B community. It also included the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, which preserves copies of Web pages in order to fill a similar function as libraries.
When a famous magazine and a library get lumped in with “rogue pirate sites” in this way, it’s not hard to see how an overzealous copyright holder might seek to shut legitimate businesses down through PIPA.
PIPA would put new burdens and possible liability on independent third parties, including payment processors, advertising firms, information location tools and others. The definitions here are incredibly vague, and many companies signed below could fall under the broad definitions of “information location tools,” meaning costly changes to their infrastructure, including how we remain in compliance with blocking orders on an ever-changing Internet.
Separately, including a private right of action means that any rightsholder can tie up a service provider in costly legal action, even if it eventually turns out to not be valid. Given the broad definitions used above for sites “supporting piracy,” it’s not difficult to predict that plenty of legitimate startups may end up having to spend time, money and resources to deal with such actions.
These burdens will be particularly intense for small businesses who can’t easily afford the legal fees, infrastructure costs or staff required to remain in compliance with broadly worded laws in a rapidly changing ecosystem.
Legitimate services already do their part by following the notice-and-takedown system of the DMCA. While we take these types of legal responsibilities seriously and already take on costs to do so, that’s no reason to pile on additional regulations.
As Web entrepreneurs and Web users, we want to ensure that artists and great creative content can thrive online. But this isn’t the right way to address the underlying issue. Introducing this new regulatory weapon into the piracy arms race won’t stop the arms race, but it will ensure there will be more collateral damage along the way. There are certainly challenges to succeeding as a content creator online, but the opportunities are far greater than the challenges, and the best way to address the latter is to create more of the former.
In other words, innovation in the form of more content tools, platforms and services is the right way to address piracy -- while also creating new jobs and fueling economic growth. Entrepreneurs like us can help do that; PIPA can’t.
Sincerely,
(In alphabetical order by name, followed by companies either founded or where one was in a job-creating executive role)
Jonathan Abrams
Nuzzel, Founders Den, Socializr, Friendster, HotLinks
Asheesh Advani
Covestor, Virgin Money USA, CircleLending
David Albert
Hackruiter
Will Aldrich
SurveyMonkey, TripIt, Yahoo
Courtland Allen
Syphir, Tyrant
Lloyd Armbrust
OwnLocal.com
Jean Aw
NOTCOT Inc.
Joshua Baer
Capital Factory, OtherInbox, UnsubCentral, SKYLIST
Andy Baio
Upcoming, Kickstarter
Edward Baker
Friend.ly
David Barrett
Expensify
Jonathan Baudanza
beatlab.com, Rupture
Katia Beauchamp
Birchbox
Idan Beck
Incident Technologies
Justin Beck
PerBlue
Matthew Bellows
Yesware Inc., WGR Media
David Berger
XL Marketing, Caridian Marketing Labs
Nicholas Bergson-Shilcock
Hackruiter
Ted Blackman
Course Zero Automation, Motion Arcade
Matthew Blumberg
MovieFone, ReturnPath
Nic Borg
Edmodo
Bruce Bower
Plastic Jungle, Blackhawk Network, Reactrix, Soliloquy Learning, ZapMe! Corporation, YES! Entertainment
Josh Buckley
MinoMonsters
John Buckman
Lyris, Magnatune, BookMooch
Justin Cannon
Lingt Language, EveryArt
Teck Chia
OpenAppMkt, Omigosh LLC, Gabbly.com
Bill Clerico
WePay
Michael Clouser
iLoding, Market Diligence, CEO Research, New Era Strategies
Zach Coelius
Triggit, Votes For Students, Coelius Enterprises
John Collison
Stripe
Ben Congleton
Olark, Nethernet
Dave Copps
PureDiscovery, Engenium
Jon Crawford
Storenvy
Dennis Crowley
Foursquare, Dodgeball
Angus Davis
Swipely, Tellme
Eric DeMenthon
PadMapper.com
Steve DeWald
Proper Suit, Data Marketplace, Maggwire
Chad Dickerson
Etsy
Suhail Doshi
Mixpanel
Natalie Downe
Lanyrd Inc.
Nick Ducoff
Infochimps
Derek Dukes
Jetpac, Dipity, Yahoo!
Jennifer Dulski
The Dealmap
Rod Ebrahimi
ReadyForZero, DirectHost
Chas Edwards
Luminate, Digg, Federated Media, MySimon
Dale Emmons
Vidmakr
David Federlein
Fowlsound Productions, Soapbox Coffee, Inc.
Mark Fletcher
ONElist, Bloglines
Andrew Fong
Kirkland North
Tom Frangione
Simply Continuous, Telphia
Brian Frank
Live Colony
Ken Fromm
Vivid Studios, Loomia, Iron.io
Nasser Gaemi
BigDates, ASAM International
Matt Galligan
SimpleGeo, SocialThing
Zachary Garbow
Funeral Innovations
Jud Gardner
Comprehend Systems
David Gibbs
High Speed Access Corp, Darwin Networks, Nomad Innovations
Christopher Golda
BackType
Eyal Goldwerger
TargetSpot, XMPie, WhenU, GoCargo
Jude Gomila
Heyzap
Jeremy Gordon
Department of Behavior and Logic, Secret Level, MagicArts
Steve Greenwood
drop.io
James Gross
Percolate, Federated Media
Sean Grove
Bushido, Inc.
Anupam Gupta
Mixpo
Mike Hagan
LifeShield, Verticalnet, Nutrisystem
Tony Haile
Chartbeat, Chi.mp
Jared Hansen
Breezy
Scott Heiferman
Meetup, Fotolog
Jack Herbeck Jr.
Elroynet, Blu Zone
Eva Ho
Factual, Navigating Cancer, Applied Semantics
Reid Hoffman
LinkedIn, Paypal, Socialnet, Investor in many more, including Facebook, Zynga & GroupOn
Jason Huggins
Blu Zone
Ben Ifeld
Macer Media
Joichi Ito
Neoteny, Digital Garage, Investor in many more including Twitter, Flickr, Kickstarter, Six Apart, Technorati and over 20 other US companies
Jason Jacobs
FitnessKeeper
Daniel James
Three Rings Design
David Jilk
Standing Cloud, eCortex, Xaffire
Noah Kagan
Appsumo, GetGambit
Bill Kallman
Scayl, Varolii
Jon Karl
iovation, ieLogic
Michael Karnjanaprakorn
Skillshare
Bryan Kennedy
Sincerely.com, AppNinjas, Xobni, Pairwise
Derek Kerton
Kerton Group, Telecom Council of Silicon Valley
Drew Kese
Ecount, Orocast
David Kidder
Clickable, SmartRay Network, THINK New Ideas, Net-X
Eric Koger
ModCloth
Kitty Kolding
elicit, House Party, Jupiter
Pete Koomen
Optimizely, CarrotSticks
Brian Krausz
GazeHawk
Amit Kumar
Socialscope
Ryan Lackey
HavenCo, Blue Iraq, Cryptoseal
Jeff Lawson
Twilio, Nine Star, Stubhub, Versity
Peter Lehrman
AxialMarket, Gerson Lehrman Group
Michael Levit
Bluelight.com, Redbooth, Spigot, Founders Den
Michael Lewis
Stellar Semiconductor, Cryptic Studios
Thede Loder
Boxbe, Leverage Information Systems
Marissa Louie
Ness Computing, HeroEX, AD-Village
Eric Marcoullier
OneTrueFan, Gnip, MyBlogLog, IGN
Michael Masnick
Floor64
Jordan Mendelson
SeatMe, Heavy Electrons, SNOCAP, Web Services Inc
Dwight Merriman
DoubleClick, BusinessInsider, Gilt Groupe, 10gen
Scott Milliken
MixRank.com
Michael Montano
BackType
Dave Morgan
Simulmedia, TACODA, Real Media
Zac Morris
Caffeinated Mind Inc.
Rick Morrison
Comprehend Systems
Amy Muller
GetSatisfaction, Rubyred Labs
Darren Nix
Silver Financial
Jeff Nolan
GetSatisfaction, NewsGator, Teqlo, Investor in many more
Craig Ogg
ThisNext, Stamps.com, TrueCar
Alexis Ohanian
Breadpig, Hipmunk, Reddit
Casey Oppenheim
Disconnect, Oppenheim Law
Tim O’Reilly
O'Reilly Media, Safari Books Online, Collabnet, Investor in many more
MIchael Ossareh
Heysan
Gagan Palrecha
Chirply, Zattoo, Sennari
Scott Petry
Authentic8, Postini
Mark Pincus
Zynga, Tribe Networks, SupportSoft, FreeLoader
Chris Poole
4chan, Canvas
Jon Pospischil
PowerSportsStore, AppMentor, FoodTrux, Custora
Jeff Powers
Occipital
Jeff Pulver
140Conf, Pulver.com, Vonage, Free World Dialup, VON Coalition, Vivox
Scott Rafer
Omniar, Lookery, MyBlogLog, Feedster, Fresher, Fotonation, Torque Systems
John Ramey
BuyAds.com, isocket, Maven Ventures, Lythargic Media, electronicfood.com
Vikas Reddy
Occipital
Michael Robertson
DAR.fm, mp3tunes.com, Gizmo5, Linspire, mp3.com
Ian Rogers
TopSpin, MediaCode, FISTFULAYEN, NullSoft/AOL, Yahoo! Music
Avner Ronen
Boxee, Odigo
Zack Rosen
ChapterThree, MissionBicycle, GetPantheon
Oliver Roup
VigLink
Slava Rubin
IndieGoGo
David Rusenko
Weebly
Arram Sabeti
ZeroCater
Peter Schmidt
Midnight Networks, NorthStar Internetworking, Burning Blue Aviation, New England Free Skies Association, Lifting Mind, Analog Devices, Teradyne, Ipanema Technologies, Linear Air
Geoff Schmidt
Tuneprint, MixApp, Honeycomb Guide
Sam Shank
HotelTonight, DealBase, SideStep, TravelPost
Upendra Shardanand
Daylife, The Accelerator Group, Firefly Network
Emmett Shear
Justin.tv
Pete Sheinbaum
LinkSmart, DailyCandy, Alexblake.com, Shop.Eonline.com
Chris Shipley
Guidewire Group
Adi Sideman
Oddcast, Ksolo Karaoke, TargetSpot, YouNow
Chris Sims
Agile Learning Labs
Dan Siroker
Optimizely, CarrotSticks
Rich Skrenta
Blekko, Topix, NewHoo
Bostjan Spetic
Zemanta
Joel Spolsky
StackExchange, Fog Creek Software
Josh Stansfied
Incident Technologies
Mike Tatum
Whiskey Media, Listen.com/Rhapsody, CNET
Brad Templeton
ClariNet Communications, Looking Glass Software, Caller App Inc.
Jack Templin
Lockify, ARC eConsultancy
Craig Tumblison
Bitcove
Khoi Vinh
Lascaux, NYTimes.com, Behavior Design
Joseph Walla
HelloFax
Brian Walsh
Castfire, Three Deep
David Weekly
PBWorks
Jack Welde
Smartling, eMusic, RunTime Technologies, Trio Development
Jeff Widman
PageLever, BrandGlue
Evan Williams
Blogger, Twitter, Obvious
Holmes Wilson
Worcester LLC, Participatory Culture Foundation
Pierre-R Wolff
DataWorks, E-coSearch, AdPassage, Impulse! Buy Network, Kinecta, Impermium, First Virtual Holdings, Revere Data, Tribe Networks
Dennis Yang
Infochimps, Floor64, CNET, mySimon
Chris Yeh
PBWorks, Ustream, Symphoniq
Kevin Zettler
Bushido, Inc.
David Zhao
ZumoDrive
[1]See John Haitiwanger et al, Who Creates Jobs? Small vs. Large vs. Young, US Census Bureau Center for Economic Studies Paper No. CES-WP- 10-17 (August 2010), available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1666157&
[2]See McKinsey Global Institute, Internet Matters (May 2011), available at http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/publications/internet_matters/pdfs/MGI_internet_matters_full_report.pdf
[3] Security and Other Technical Concerns Raised by the DNS Filtering Requirements in the PROTECT IP Bill” http://domainincite.com/docs/PROTECT-IP-Technical-Whitepaper-Final.pdf