As you can imagine, Congressman Jerry Nadler, who represents the Upper West Side and other parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, heard a lot from his constituents about new legislation in Congress meant to curb online piracy. Two bills with the acronyms SOPA and PIPA aim to stop online piracy, particularly by foreign companies and individuals, but critics say they are too broad and could give the government wide power to restrict speech on the Internet.
The congressional district that Nadler represents includes people who are about as web-savvy as anywhere in the country, and many powerful tech firms have come out against the legislation. Wikipedia, Google and other major tech companies protested last week. But unlike some other politicians, Nadler hasn’t taken a strong position on the legislation as it was originally presented. Since the protests, some of the bill’s proponents have backed away from it, saying they plan to change it to address some of the concerns that have been raised. Here’s Nadler’s response to our question about his position, and whether he had received pressure to reject the bill:
“We have received hundreds of calls/emails/letters on this topic, largely against the legislation. Rep. Nadler sits on the Judiciary Committee (which is the committee of jurisdiction) and prefers to wait until the language in the legislation is finalized – and he has fully learned all of its ramifications – before he weighs in,” hsi spokesman wrote.
Asked how he felt about the bills as they were originally drafted, his spokesman wrote: “He has many thoughts on it but, frankly, the committee process was interrupted before the many questions and concerns could be adequately addressed.”
To contact Nadler about this and other issues, you can email him here. Let us know how he responds to you!
