We know pretty much who doesn"t support the Stop Online Piracy Act. Aside from names like Twitter, Reddit, Kaspersky, Mozilla, Wikipedia and Google, millions of Internet users have been speaking out against it and the similar PROTECT IP Act, the Senate version of SOPA.
So who is supporting it? That has been somewhat of a mystery until Lamar Smith, Republican congressman from Texas, and SOPAs author, released his comprehensive list.
The list is mostly media conglomerates, law/lobbying firms, publishing companies and other associated interest groups. The usual suspects that you would expect to see attached to protecting copyright like the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) are there, along with Time Warner, CBS, NBCUniversal, BMI, ABC, News Corporation, Sony, the US Chamber of Commerce and Disney. What is most odd are the names you don"t expect to see.
At the top of the list is the 60 Plus Association, which describes itself as "a non-partisan seniors advocacy group with a free enterprise, less government, less taxes approach to seniors issues." They view SOPA as a digital way of keeping keeps bad kids off their lawns, but besides that it"s hard to see what direct interest they have in this issue:
60 Plus strongly supports SOPA, much-needed legislation that will strengthen our enforcement efforts to curb online counterfeiting and piracy in an ever-changing digital world. Rogue sites are sophisticated, deceptive operations aimed at luring consumers, including senior citizens, into purchasing dangerously defective products or downloading illegal pirated content filled with malware. Additionally, America’s seniors are committed to, and dependent on, America being a dominant force on the world’s economic stage. Rogue sites legislation like SOPA will help save jobs, grow our economy, and protect consumers.
Estée Lauder, Revlon and L’Oreal. Apparently illegally torrenting and downloading copyrighted materials is of great concern to three companies who sell makeup. Pfizer is on the list, although their reasoning is obvious. They must be intending to use SOPA to stop the distribution of free online pornography, the biggest competition for their erection assistant, Viagra.
Absent from the list is the Recording Industry Artists of America (RIAA), although not surprising given their recent interest in torrent downloading.