Former Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), now the CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, released a statement late Friday morning responding to the sudden announcements earlier from Congressional leaders that two controversial anti-piracy bills, the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate’s Protect IP Act (PIPA) had been indefinitely shelved.
Dodd’s statement “applaud[s]” those lawmakers who didn’t budge in their support of SOPA and PIPA (there can’t be many of them left at this point) and accuses the rest of Congress of “failing to act,” saying “American jobs will continue to be lost,” as a result.
Full statement here:
We applaud those leaders in Washington who have chosen to stand with the millions of hard working Americans all across this nation whose livelihoods are threatened by foreign criminal websites designed to steal. As a consequence of failing to act, there will continue to be a safe haven for foreign thieves; American jobs will continue to be lost; and consumers will continue to be exposed to fraudulent and dangerous products peddled by foreign criminals.
With today’s announcement, we hope the dynamics of the conversation can change and become a sincere discussion about how best to protect the millions of American jobs affected by the theft of American intellectual property. The threat posed by these criminal operations has been widely acknowledged by even the most ardent critics. It is incumbent that they now sincerely work with all of us to achieve a meaningful solution to this critically important goal.
