Sad Statement: Senators Behind Two Largest Tech Communities In The US Support PIPA Against Those Communities

from the anyone-else-want-to-step-up? dept

Charlie O'Donnell has an excellent post noting just how ridiculous it is that New York's two Senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, both support PIPA. He notes that NY has become an up-and-coming tech hub these days. Indeed, over the last decade, NYC has emerged as the widely agreed upon "second" hub of tech startups after SF/Silicon Valley. However, having both of NY's Senators support PIPA, despite near universal condemnation from the tech sector is an embarrassment:

It’s an embarrassment, frankly, to our tech community. If you support this bill, you are not supportive of us. All of our local politicians--our Senators, Mayor Bloomberg... and other policymakers need to be fighting this.

Chuck Schumer and Kristin Gillibrand need to switch their positions immediately on these bills, which should really aptly be named the “Stop Innovation on the Internet” bill. If NYC is going to fulfill its potential as an innovation hub, we can't have our senators supporting SOPA. They’re on the wrong side of history here, and they don’t understand enough about the internet and how it came to be to see why.

Of course, it's even worse than that for tech hubs. Here in Silicon Valley... we also have both of our Senators supporting the bill. Senators Feinstein and Boxer are both supporters, with Feinstein being so incredibly out of touch, she doesn't even realize that there are complaints about the bill.

This is a really sad statement on both politics and the nature of innovation in America today. For all the talk politicians say about how they're in favor of creating jobs, and despite multiple studies showing that startups are the ones who actually create the jobs... when it comes time to figure out actual policy positions to take, these Senators "follow the money" and support Hollywood's position, because Hollywood funds their campaigns. While perhaps you can make the claim that Feinstein and Boxer represent both Silicon Valley and Hollywood -- the fact that all four of these Senators support an anti-innovation, anti-tech, anti-jobs bill like PIPA is a huge travesty.

Filed Under: barbara boxer, california, chuck schumer, dianne feinstein, kirsten gillibrand, new york, pipa, politics, protect ip, sopa, tech hubs