From Daily Tech Dose, from National Journal
Groups Pushing For Action Thursday On Net Piracy Bill
By Juliana Gruenwald
Several groups are pushing the Senate Judiciary Committee to act Thursday on legislation that would crack down on online piracy and counterfeiting.
The legislation, sponsored by Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is on the committee's agenda for its Thursday markup along with several nominations and other bills. Only one of the nominations is viewed as controversial at this point. Several sources say they expect the committee to get to the online piracy bill if it can muster the necessary number of members needed to report legislation out of committee. Leahy said earlier this week that "he'd love" to move the bill at Thursday's markup....
In addition, a group of law professors sent a letter Tuesday to the committee voicing several objections to the bill. "To begin with, the Act is an unconstitutional abridgment of the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment," according to the letter signed by such law professors as David Post at Temple University, Michael Froomkin of the University of Miami and Pamela Samuelson of the University of California at Berkeley [School of Information and School of Law].