Alan Schaaf Quotes

Protect IP (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) are a step towards a different kind of Internet. They are a step towards an Internet in which those with money and lawyers and access to power have a greater voice than those who don't.

Allowing a handful of broadband carriers to determine what people see and do online would fundamentally undermine the features that have made the Internet such a success, and could permanently compromise the Internet as a platform for the free exchange of information, commerce, and ideas.

Notwithstanding the fact that the most innovative and progressive space we've seen - the Internet - has been the place where intellectual property has been least respected. You know, facts don't get in the way of this ideology.

Pirate Party

The threat [of the U.S. bills SOPA and PIPA] is the inversion of the burden of proof, where we suddenly are all treated like thieves at every moment we're given the freedom to create, to produce or to share.

There was one issue on which there seemed to be almost unanimity: the Internet should not be managed by any government, national or multinational.

We've seen a massive attack on the freedom of the web. Governments are realizing the power of this medium to organize people and they are trying to clamp down across the world, not just in places like China and North Korea; we're seeing bills in the United States, in Italy, all across the world.

Let's not let the government sell us out. Let's fight for net neutrality.

Napster was predicating its business model on violation of copyright.

At its core, the FCC's plan to regulate the Internet will force businesses and people to check first with the government and get permission to innovate.

It is not inevitable that the Internet will evolve in a manner compatible with democracy.

Compliance with the Stop Online Piracy Act would require huge overhead spending by Internet companies for staff and technologies dedicated to monitoring users and censoring any infringing material from being posted or transmitted.

Information on the Internet must be as free as in the newspapers.

If net neutrality goes away, it will fundamentally change everything about the Internet.

The only way the Internet will continue to remain the thriving medium it has become today is to keep it under the control of the United States.

For years, my colleagues and I - primarily Republicans but also some Democrats - have introduced legislation and written to the FCC asking the commission to cease attempts to regulate the Internet unless given the clear authority to do so by Congress.

In Russia, they do not generally block the Internet and directly censor websites.

Some ISPs are blocking all BitTorrent traffic, because BitTorrent can be used to share files in a piratical way. Hollywood lobbying groups are trying to pass laws which would force ISPs to block or degrade BitTorrent traffic, too. Personally, I think this is like closing down freeways because a bank robber could use them to get away.

The Pirate Party believes it's time to think about digital rights rather than digital privilege.

network neutrality

Washington faces a simple choice: allow the Internet to remain as an engine of innovation, a platform for speech in even the harshest tyrannies, and a unified connection for people across the globe—or cede control of the Internet to service providers motivated by their parochial interests.

Without net neutrality protections, the Internet would no longer be a free and open ecosystem for innovation.

President Obama is a big supporter of keeping the Internet open. During his presidential campaign, he pledged his support to net neutrality repeatedly.

To go back to a 1950s voice mentality with Title II and net neutrality would be a tremendous mistake for our country.

Net neutrality is the principle forbidding huge telecommunications companies from treating users, websites, or apps differently - say, by letting some work better than others over their pipes.