Rep Lofgren grills copyright chief over meeting with movie lawyers on SOPA

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) grilled Maria Pallante, the head of the U.S. Copyright Office, over a meeting with movie studio lawyers on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) during a hearing of the House Administration Committee.

Rep Lofgren said she was concerned because a day after the meeting with movie studios in Los Angeles, Pallante called for a serious response to online piracy in testimony in support of SOPA. "SOPA was an extreme measure that blindly pursued copyright enforcement at the expense of many other considerations," said Lofgren, a chief opponent of the legislation. In her earlier testimony to the House Judiciary Committee one day after the meeting in Los Angeles, Pallante warned that without a serious response to online piracy, "the U.S. copyright system will ultimately fail." She called SOPA "serious and comprehensive" but also "measured." Under pressure from Rep Lofgren, Pallante acknowledged the anti-piracy bill was "one of many things" discussed with the lawyers from Warner Brothers, Paramount and other major studios. Rep Lofgren also asked Pallante about a meeting in December with the Author's Guild and the Association of American Publishers. The copyright chief acknowledged that she discussed the anti-piracy legislation and the problem of rogue pirate websites at the meeting.