Schiff Still SOPA Proponent as Opposition Mounts

By Dean Lee

With the treat looming that a number of popular internet sites —opposed to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)— are poised Wednesday to “blackout” their services, including Wikipedia and the user-generated news link startup Reddit, Congressman Adam Schiff said Thursday, that he not only still supports the bill but thinks it necessary to stop overseas intellectual property theft of American goods.

Schiff is one of 12 original co-sponsors of the bill, known as H.R. 3261, introduced in October by Representative Lamar Smith of Texas.

“These are my constituents that are losing jobs because of this [pirated movies/TV] and a lot of the theft of this comes out of L.A. and out of our neighborhood,” he said.

Opponents of the bill included CEOs of some of the largest technology companies on Earth, including Google, Twitter, Yahoo, PayPal, eBay and craigslist.

In an open letter authored by, Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, Jack Dorsey co-founder of Twitter and Arianna Huffington co-founder of the Huffington Post among others, says SOPA threatens the existence of the internet.

Their concerns rage from the bills requirement that file sharing sites and search engines must monitor what users link to, or upload; to implications that it would deny website owners the right to due process of law giving the government, in what opponents say, amounts to censorship.

Schiff, optimistic, said he thinks the bill is being improved.

“There have been some amendments that have been adopted in committee to address some of the concerns the have been raised,” he said. “The goal is really focused on these foreign websites that are the venue for massive amounts of theft of American work product.”

In December The House Judiciary Committee held three markup sessions, one lasting over 10 hours. Schiff said the bill was currently still in markup and would again be heard Tuesday when the House convenes.

Reports from Computerworld.com, at the time, said about 20 amendments designed to address SOPA concerns were voted down.

The bills leading supporters include the Motion Picture Association of America, and the Recording Industry Association of America. Schiff said companies are losing billions of dollars and thousands of jobs to overseas pirating.  

ANTONOVICH TO HONOR TOMMY LASORDA

MEDIA ADVISORY

Contact:  Tony Bell, Communications Deputy Office:     (213) 974-5555  Cell: (213) 215-5176 E-mail:     tbell@bos.lacounty.gov

January 17, 2012                                                                                                                                                                                                      For Immediate Release

ANTONOVICH TO HONOR TOMMY LASORDA

ON HIS 63^RD SEASON WITH THE LOS ANGELES DODGERS

          WHO:              Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich

Hall of Fame winning Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda

          

         WHAT:              Supervisor Antonovich will honor Tommy Lasorda on 63 seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers with an official presentation at the regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors.

       WHEN:            Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 1:30 pm

     WHERE:             Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration

Board Hearing Room – 381B

500 West Temple Street

Los Angeles, CA 90012

Pasadena Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors Votes to Support Exploration of NFL Interim Opportunity at Rose Bowl

Chance for lucrative defined-term NFL tenant should not be dismissed without knowing terms and financial benefits to Rose Bowl, City of Pasadena and local businesses

Pasadena, CA – At its December meeting, the Board of Directors of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce voted to formally take a position in support of the Rose Bowl exploring the opportunity to host an interim professional National Football League (NFL) team for as many as four years.

“Without a deal on the table and without knowing what the financial, environmental and neighborhood impacts may be, the Chamber Board overwhelmingly supported the idea of looking at the Rose Bowl hosting an NFL team on a short-term basis, should that opportunity arise,” said Chamber CEO Paul Little. “The Board felt very strongly that it would be a huge lost opportunity to dismiss the interim NFL team before even hearing what any deal terms may be and without understanding what impacts may result.”

To date, there has not been an NFL team announced for the Los Angeles area. Two proposals are currently competing for the rights to bring a team to Los Angeles, one that would be located in the City of Industry and the other intended to be housed at a stadium to be built in downtown Los Angeles. Neither entity has been able to secure an agreement to re-located an NFL team to Los Angeles. If and when that happens, it is very likely that the Los Angeles NFL team would need a temporary stadium in which to play its home games for as many as four years as their permanent home is being built.

“Right now there is no indication that an NFL team will relocate to Los Angeles anytime in the near future, though we all recognize that an announcement could come in the next few weeks or five years from now,” said Mr. Little. “The Chamber Board simply wants our Rose Bowl stadium to be able to entertain the idea of hosting an interim NFL team. The Board encourages the Rose Bowl to, at the very least, look into the opportunity and determine if it is in the best interest of the stadium, the community and our local economy to play host to professional football for a defined period of time. If, at some point, there is a deal to be considered, the Chamber Board will likely look at the deal points and decide if the economic benefits outweigh any impacts to our community or the Arroyo Seco.” 

The Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association is a professional business organization. Since the earliest days of Pasadena, the Chamber has played a major role in the development of this internationally renowned city. Since 1888, when the organization was founded as the Board of Trade, the Chamber's primary purpose has been the enhancement of both the business climate and the quality of life in Pasadena. The Pasadena Chamber of Commerce serves 1500 members.