LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION urging the New York State Congressional deleg-
ation to oppose House Bill 3261, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and
Senate Bill 968, Protect IP Act, (PIPA)

WHEREAS, Centuries before the advent of the internet, the framers of the
Constitution envisioned a government that protected our nation's First
Amendment rights of free speech and the important act that is the free
exchange of ideas; and
WHEREAS, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), House Bill 3261, would expand
the ability of United States law enforcement and copyright holders to
fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and coun-
terfeit goods; and
WHEREAS, Protect IP Act (PIPA), Senate Bill 968, is a proposed law
with the stated goal of giving the United States government and copy-
right holders additional tools to curb access to "rogue websites dedi-
cated to infringing or counterfeit goods," especially those registered
outside the United States; and
WHEREAS, SOPA and PIPA, corresponding bills in the House of Represen-
tatives and the United State Senate, seek to minimize the dissemination
of copyrighted material online by targeting sites that promote and
enable the sharing of copyright-protected material; and
WHEREAS, While this goal may be laudable, entrepreneurs, legal schol-
ars and free speech activists are worried about the consequences of
these bills for the architecture of the internet; and
WHEREAS, Under Domain Name System (DNS) blocking, if a user entered
the web address of a rogue site, it would appear the site did not exist;
and
WHEREAS, Previous legislation has asked that copyrighted material be
removed from websites, but SOPA and PIPA would ban and blackout sites
completely for having copyrighted material; this would censor all mate-
rial on the website rather than ending the publishing of copyrighted
material; and
WHEREAS, Furthermore, SOPA and PIPA place the burden on website owners
to police user-contributed content; also, small sites will not have the
financial and legal resources to completely audit their websites or even
defend themselves in court; and
WHEREAS, This would lead to the total blackout of small independent
websites at the hands of companies with the resources to do so; overall,
conglomerates could begin to censor the internet and fill it with their
own content and opinions; and
WHEREAS, Having sites monitor their own content and the content of the
sites they link to would create a quagmire never seen before; and
WHEREAS, In its current form, President Barack Obama has publicly
stated the White House will not support legislation that reduces freedom
of expression, increases cyber security risk, or undermines the dynamic,
innovative global Internet; and
WHEREAS, Representatives Anna G. Eshoo, Zoe Lofgren, Jared Polis, Ron
Paul, Mike Doyle, Lloyd Doggett, Doris O. Matsui, Mike Honda, Mike
Thompson and George Miller wrote an open letter to Congress and the
Chairman of the Committee on Judiciary, Representative Lamar Smith, that
enacted this legislation would cause "substantial harm to the innovative
and economic opportunities created by the internet," and that, "SOPA as
written, however, is overly broad and would cause serious and long-term
damage to the technology industry, one of the few bright spots in our
economy"; and
WHEREAS, Continuing to purport SOPA's overly broad language, in its
current form, would target legitimate domestic websites, creating

significant uncertainty for those in the technology and venture capital
industries; and
WHEREAS, A letter of opposition was signed by 130 technology entrepre-
neurs and executives and sent to Congress to express their concern stat-
ing the bills in their present form would hurt economic growth and chill
innovation in legitimate services that help people create, communicate,
and earn money online; and
WHEREAS, In these difficult economic times for our State and Nation,
targeting a growing industry and striking fear into those pursuing
employment and careers in the ever-developing internet markets is a
mistake and another burden and hindrance our economy cannot sustain; and
WHEREAS, It is imperative that Congress and the Senate work together
to take all the necessary legal measures to ensure the free flowing of
personal opinions and beliefs are still able to occur on the internet;
and
WHEREAS, Any legislation that imposes the potential for a complete
shut down of websites is censorship and goes against the basic civil
rights that our founders deemed fundamental rights in the United States
of America; and
WHEREAS, By opposing this legislation, the members of the New York
State Congressional delegation will be protecting the rights of freedom
of speech, the spread of ideas and the growth of American Industry; and
WHEREAS, New York should be the nation's leader in supporting free
speech on the internet and standing up for First Amendment rights; and
WHEREAS, New York State has been and shall remain a symbol of freedom,
progress, and liberty for all people and the right of free speech; now,
therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the New York State Congressional delegation be and
hereby is respectfully memorialized by this Legislative Body to oppose
House Bill 3261, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Senate Bill 968,
Protect IP Act, (PIPA); and be it further
RESOLVED, That copies of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to each member of the Congressional delegation from the State of
New York.