Yesterday, House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith released his Manager’s Amendment to the Stop Online Piracy Act. True to his word, it is clear that Chairman Smith has made a genuine and sincere effort to address reasonable concerns while preserving the bill as an effective tool in the struggle against rogue sites. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce thanks Chairman Smith for his leadership and is proud to state it’s support for the Chairman’s amendment.

The Chamber has been and remains dedicated to tackling online counterfeiting and piracy. Rogue sites represent the worst of the worst of online IP theft and they have no place in a legitimate market. We believe that legislation in this area should provide an effective tool against foreign IP thieves. And we believe that can be done in a way that respects the commercially reasonable interests of the strategic partners in the effort to cut off rogue sites from the U.S. marketplace. The Manager’s Amendment represents a thoughtful, careful, and good faith effort and we think it deserves high praise.

Those who want to tackle rogue sites but who have reasonable concerns clearly have a friend in Chairman Smith. But those who try to deny that rogue sites present a real and present threat to American jobs and American consumers, and those who simply try to kill effective rogue sites legislation have no credibility.

The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider this legislation on Thursday. We urge every Member of that Committee to support the Manager’s Amendment and reject the claims that now, more than ever, simply do not reflect the reality of the legislation. What is real is that rogue sites legislation has the support of hundreds of companies, trade associations, and professional organizations, the Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO, 43 State Attorneys General, the Council of State Governments, the National Conference of State Legislatures the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Consumers League, and many, many others.

The time for legislative action is NOW.