[x-pubpol] CNET: MPAA's former tech policy chief turns SOPA foe

[Joly MacFie]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57410674-281/mpaas-former-tech-policy-chief-turns-sopa-foe/

Hollywood's ex-chief technology policy officer has become the latest
critic of controversial Web site blocking laws, arguing they're
incompatible "with the health of the Internet."

by Declan McCullagh  April 6, 2012 2:19 PM PDT

A senior executive that Hollywood hired last year to be its chief
technology policy officer has undergone a remarkable about-face: he
now opposes the Stop Online Piracy Act.

Paul Brigner, who was until last month a senior vice president at the
Motion Picture Association of America, has emerged as SOPA's latest
critic. "I firmly believe that we should not be legislating
technological mandates to protect copyright -- including SOPA and
Protect IP," he says.

In a statement posted on CNET.com,
<http://news.cnet.com/8618-31921_3-57404804.html?assetTypeId=12&messageId=12154966>
Brigner says that his time at the MPAA -- which, more than any other
advocacy group, was responsible for SOPA and Protect IP -- led him to
realize that new laws to block allegedly piratical Web sites simply
won't work.

"Did my position on this issue evolve over the last 12 months? I am
not ashamed to admit that it certainly did," Brigner writes. "The more
I became educated on the realities of these issues, the more I came to
the realization that a mandated technical solution just isn't mutually
compatible with the health of the Internet." (See CNET's SOPA FAQ.)

A spokesman for the MPAA said his organization would not comment on
Brigner's volte-face.


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