SAN ANTONIO- Websites like Wikipedia and craigslist pulled the plug Wednesday, protesting the Stop Online Piracy Act. It's a fight that has roots in San Antonio, with a congressman on one side and a local CEO on the other.
Rep. Lamar Smith wrote SOPA but Rackspace CEO Lanham Napier says legally, it's not the way to go.
"The problem with SOPA it that it's technology remedy does more harm than good," Napier said. "It doesn't eliminate pirates, number one. Number two: it asks us to manipulate some of the underpinnings of the Internet and asks us to behave in a way that increases security flaws."
He said Rackspace already spends millions to fight pirates and has an entire team devoted to the cause.
"The gist of it is the SOPA bill tries to remove websites from being online. This is why people on the web today thinks it's tantamount to censorship," he explained.
However, Rep. Smith is defending his bill.
"If the protests were based on facts and good information, that might be persuasive but I didn't hear anything but misinformation," he said.
"The bill in question does not target domestic websites, it only targets illegal, foreign websites. Last time I looked, Wikipedia and others were domestic sites so they don't have anything to worry about unless they are engaged in illegal activities," he said.
Napier supports a difference piece of legislation called the OPEN Act, but Rep. Smith was critical of that bill, saying it would only make the problem worse.
Rep. Smith has already made some changes to SOPA, but a similar bill called the Protect IP Act, or PIPA, was set to be voted on in the Senate Jan. 24, however, some senators are asking to delay the vote.
