AT ISSUE SOPA: The Stop Online Piracy Act, authored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, would give the government the authority to order Internet providers to block access to foreign websites that post copyrighted content without permission and bar U.S advertisers and payment processors from doing business them. Opposition: The bill’s opponents, who include technology companies, civil liberties groups and even tea party activists, call it a censorship tool that would upend the Internet’s structure while doing little to prevent piracy because people could find ways to get around it.

Last year, the movie “Fast Five” was downloaded 9.26 million times via BitTorrent, making the high-octane sequel the most pirated movie in 2011, according to blog TorrentFreak.

By comparison, 2.06 million copies were sold after the action flick’s DVD release on Oct. 4.

Grappling with what they believe to be the loss of millions of dollars in revenue, filmmakers and their brethren in the music industry have thrown their weight behind bills in Congress designed to block the flow of pirated material online.

However, some — including many in the Boulder tech scene — fear that legislation designed to drive away illegal downloads could damage the very fabric of the Internet by giving the U.S. government the ability to block Americans from viewing foreign websites that contain — even by accident — copyrighted material.

Rep. Jared Polis, D-Boulder, who made millions through his efforts as an Internet entrepreneur, has joined the tech community in becoming a vocal opponent of the bills.

“Online piracy’s a real problem that deserves a real thoughtful solution, not something that damages the infrastructure of the Internet itself,” Polis said.

Competing corners

At the tail end of last year, two bills moved forward in Congress that put Hollywood and Silicon Valley in separate corners, and now have some of the biggest players in Boulder’s tech community joining the fray.

Legislators are attempting to combat Internet-based piracy and copyright infringement through similarly positioned, yet unaffiliated bipartisan bills: Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House and the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (aka the PROTECT IP Act, or PIPA) in the Senate.

Movement on SOPA, PIPA and a third bill — an alternative introduced last month — could resume as early as this week.

Proponents of the acronym-friendly SOPA and PIPA proposals said they want to provide greater leverage and means for artists, entrepreneurs and other copyright holders to protect their craft from piracy, and have the U.S. Department of Justice go after “rogue” foreign website operators.

But just how those creations would be protected has raised the ire of many in the technology community.

Opponents of the measures said legislators were trying to fast-track bills that could allow for any foreign website accused of housing pirated material to be effectively shut down in the U.S. by blocking the site on search engines or through Internet service providers — thereby limiting potential revenue.

By the close of the last session, SOPA and PIPA had garnered the support of the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America and some of the biggest organizations in film, music and publishing, in addition to organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

‘Beyond comprehension’

It also spurred dissent from the likes of Google, LinkedIn, Reddit, Yahoo and high-tech heavy-hitters such as Boulder’s Brad Feld, whose anti-SOPA/PIPA blog posts have gone viral on sites such as Twitter.

Additionally, uproar from Internet users spurred sites such as GoDaddy, a previous SOPA supporter, to switch sides.

“In addition to being censorship bills, these are anti-entrepreneurship bills. They are a classic example of industry incumbents trying to use the law to stifle disruptive innovation, or at least innovation that they view as disruptive to their established business,” Feld wrote on his blog Feld Thoughts (feld.com), the logo of which now is partially covered by a black bar reading “stop censorship.”

“To date, the Internet has been an incredible force for entrepreneurship and positive change throughout the world (did anyone notice what recently happened in Egypt?). It’s beyond comprehension why some people in Congress would want to slow this down in any way,” Feld continued.

SOPA was modified through a series of mark-ups, while PIPA’s sponsor said late last week the bill would be further amended later this month. And the third bill — Online Protection & Enforcement of Digital Trade Act, or OPEN — was introduced as an alternative by making the International Trade Commission responsible for finding and fighting foreign websites that infringe on U.S. copyrighted material.

Polis threw his support behind OPEN and pledged to water down or kill SOPA, legislation he described as a “poorly constructed bill” that would hobble the Internet economy and destroy jobs.

Polis said he believes the correct approach would be to hold governments accountable for enforcing intellectual property laws within their own borders. If the countries fail to do so, Polis said they should be subject to trade sanctions.

“SOPA is essentially a government takeover of the Internet,” he said.

‘Nothing to worry about’

SOPA sponsor Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, has said critics continue to “spread lies” about the bill even after it was amended in December to address earlier concerns.

The amendments included adding clarifications that the provisions applied to non-U.S. websites, removing language that would require Internet Service Providers monitor for potential infringements and also eliminating clauses that would result in users be redirected from those sites.

“Lawful companies and websites like Google, Twitter, Yahoo and Facebook have nothing to worry about under this bill,” Smith said in a statement released Dec. 14. “Unfortunately, that has not stopped some of the bill’s critics from spreading lies about the legislation in an attempt to stall efforts by Congress to combat foreign rogue websites.

“Companies like Google have made billions by working with and promoting foreign rogue websites so they have a vested interest in preventing Congress from stopping rogue websites.”

Polis said his concerns were not allayed with the amendments.

“The bill is extremely flawed,” he said. “The Internet does not know national boundaries.”

He also noted that language in the bill still exists that would allow for Internet service providers to take down a site if a complaint of infringement was filed, leaving cash-strapped startups little recourse to fight claims.

‘Freedom of the Internet’

Local musician Vince Herman, the frontman for Leftover Salmon, said he’s well aware of the positives and negatives the Internet brings.

The Web broadens the promotional capabilities and reach for artists, but it also means that more people are getting content for free, he said.

“It’s tough these days; we’re not getting a lot of royalties,” Herman said. “… Hopefully by having our music out there, people are going to listen to it and like it and want to come to the shows.”

Herman said laws should better handle intellectual property concerns, but any legal effort needs to be carefully crafted.

Calling SOPA and PIPA “excessive” in their actions, Herman said he probably would throw his support behind OPEN.

“It’s something that has to be addressed,” he said. “It’s such a delicate issue when you talk about shutting down the freedom of the Internet.”