Web company founders warn piracy law would stifle innovation. Protecting The Safe Harbors Of The DMCA And Protecting Jobs. My partner Brad and I spent Thursday in DC along with a bunch of entrepreneurs and VCs.
We talked to dozens of our elected officials about an issue that is very concerning to us, protecting the safe harbors of the DMCA. The DMCA is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. It received unanimous support in the Senate and was signed into law by President Clinton in 1998. It is a complex piece of legislation but it contains four "safe harbors" for "network service providers. The four safe harbors are explained here. Freedom To Innovate. For something like seventeen years, I have been investing in entrepreneurs who have had the freedom to innovate on the Internet.
It has been a powerful life lesson for me. These people imagine something, they create it, and they are off and running building a business, hiring employees, generating cash flow. The PROTECT IP Act Will Slow Start-up Innovation.