Today Public
Knowledge launched the Internet Blueprint, an ambitious
project to develop bills that will help make the internet a better place for everyone. The site consists of six new bills Congress could pass today, as well as a way for the public to submit and vote on their own ideas.
“There
are lots of people with great ideas about what rights and protections Internet
users should have. Public
Knowledge is taking the next step by putting those ideas into a form that
Congress and other policymakers can consider,” said Michael Weinberg, the PK senior staff
attorney who is coordinating the project.
“The bills on the site now are only the first step,” Weinberg said. “Our goal is for people and organizations to propose their own ideas that can also be turned into draft legislation on other topics that will evolve into a positive agenda for Internet change.”
On the InternetBlueprint.org now are six proposed bills, five of which deal with
copyright. This set of proposed bills was inspired by the controversy surrounding the consideration by Congress of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). The Internet Blueprint bills address issues such as protections against online copyright abuse, eliminating barriers to lawful use, strengthening fair use, and shortening copyright terms.