UPDATED: New Mexico Lawmakers Sound Off on SOPA and PIPA Internet Bills

The Internet is blowing up today with chatter about the so-called SOPA bill to combat online intellectual property theft and I’ve rounded up most of New Mexico’s lawmakers to get their views.

Democratic Sens. Tom Udall and Jeff Bingaman have both signed onto the Senate bill – called the Protect IP Act or PIPA – but seem to be backing away from the current version. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., is a sponsor of the House bill. Reps. Martin Heinrich and Steve Pearce oppose the legislation.

The senators say they expect significant changes to PIPA before any Senate vote, based on a flood of citizen and corporate concerns.

“The (intellectual property) theft is in the range of $130 billion per year…and it’s a very serious issue,” Udall told me in a telephone interview today. “But some good issues have been raised. We have to listen to all of these folks about what they’re talking about. I think we can reach some common ground to protect innovation and internet security.”

“While it is not perfect, Jeff is a cosponsor because he wants to do something about intellectual property theft,” said Bingaman spokeswoman Jude McCartin.  ”Changes will be made to the bill before it passes.”

Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., told me in a telephone interview he opposes both versions of the bill. He also posted a comment about his opposition on his Facebook page.

“Anything that limits access by people, small individual users, small companies — I worry about what the government is trying to do,” Pearce told me. “I would be very suspicious of both (bills) because I think that the efforts by large users to control access to the internet and charge everybody usage fees is just a way for the big companies to take control of it. I worry about it.”

Rep. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., also opposes both bills.

“While Rep. Heinrich supports preventing the theft of intellectual property, he believes this legislation could have unintended consequences that would increase cybersecurity risk and inhibit American innovation,” said Heinrich spokeswoman Whitney Potter in an email to me.

Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., said “online piracy is a serious issue that we know does impact our economy.”

“It’s impacting jobs all over the country but especially New Mexico,” he said. “But I’m going to take a close look at their concerns and analysis and another hard look at its impact. Where I am, is understanding that piracy is a serious problem. We’re open to approaches that help us take that on.”

Meanwhile, I had a bit of New Mexico-flavored fun with the uproar on Twitter this morning. I’m a sopapilla guy, myself. Please follow me @michaelcoleman for New Mexico and national political news  and chatter.

Finally, here’s an excerpt from the Congressional Research Service on key differences in the two bills:

“SOPA (House) is similar to the PROTECT IP Act (Senate) yet is broader in scope by including several provisions … that increase the criminal penalties for online streaming of copyrighted content, create criminal penalties for trafficking in counterfeit drugs, increase penalties for foreign espionage, and require the appointment of dedicated IP personnel in U.S. embassies. SOPA also allows IP rights holders to send a written request to financial transaction providers and Internet advertisers asking them to terminate business relationships with a website (whether domestic or foreign) that is dedicated to theft of U.S. property; if such request is ignored, or if the website files a counter notification, the rights holder may then sue the website owner/operator or the website’s domain name itself.”