MPAA's former tech officer now argues against SOPA, PIPA

The Motion Picture Association of America's former chief technology policy officer is speaking out against anti-piracy bills that were a top priority for his former employer.

Paul Brigner, who resigned from his job last month as senior vice president for the MPAA, said he has changed his tune on the much-maligned Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protection Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). "I firmly believe that we should not be legislating technological mandates to protect copyright -- including SOPA and Protect IP,'' Brigner said. He said that his year-long experience at the MPAA caused him to change his views on the anti-piracy bills, concluding that they would not work. "Did my position on this issue evolve over the last 12 months? I'm not ashamed to admit that it certainly did," Brigner wrote. "The more I became educated on the realities of these issues, the more I came to the realization that a mandated technical solution just isn't mutually compatible with the health of the Internet."