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Air Date: January 23, 2012

Host: Vic Eliason

Guest: James Gattuso

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James Gattuso is Senior Research Fellow in Regulatory Policy in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

There are a couple of bills that impact postings on the Internet that have brought about a huge cyberspace backlash. They are known as SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261 in the House) and PIPA, also known as the Protect IP Act (S. 968 in the Senate).

SOPA/PIPA would make it difficult for websites, particularly those outside the U.S., from being able to violate intellectual property rights by selling or distributing the intellectual property of others; property such as movies or music.

While such protection of intellectual property rights on the Internet sounds sensible on the surface, are there any unintended consequences that the public should be concerned about? After all, China, a nation that is notorious for its censorship of free speech, is praising this legislation. Find out when you review this edition of Crosstalk.


More Information:

To contact your legislators about SOPA/PIPA, call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 or 202-225-3121.

The Heritage Foundation
www.heritage.org