SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- A group of 83 prominent Internet investors and engineers sent an open letter to members of the U.S. Congress on Thursday to voice their opposition to an anti-piracy bill which has drawn massive support from Hollywood media firms.

The bill, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), is in the process of reading and discussion on Thursday at the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.

It aims to allow the U.S. Department of Justice as well as copyright holders to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement and enable them to ask search engines, Internet ad firms, online payment companies, broadband providers and domain name providers to make the offending sites invisible.

The proposed bill has set the Internet companies against the film, music and TV industry, with both sides vowing to "fight till death" with millions of dollars shed in lobbying as well as TV and newspaper ads.

The open letter from top Internet engineers said the proposals would impose technology barriers for the Internet and holds back innovations and growth in the industry.

The opposition from engineers echoes with an open letter signed by tech heavyweights including founders of Google, Twitter, PayPal, the Huffington Post, Netscape and Wikipedia. It was published as a full-page ad on Wednesday in major U.S. newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post.

They said in the letter that the SOPA, along with a similar U.S. Senate bill called PROTECT IP Act, will stifle innovation, send death penalty to web sites and broadband providers, and set an example of American censorship.

The New York Times reported recently that Google itself has hired at least 15 lobbying firms to fight the bills. Many companies, like Firefox developer Mozilla, have encouraged users to sign up a petition against the bill, citing the possible Internet censorship in the United States.

Internet companies have also proposed an OPEN Act (Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade) as an alternative to SOPA, trying to limit lawsuits for them by limiting their responsibilities to eradicate access to piracy sites and demand less involvement of the U.S. government in the bills.

However, Hollywood is sparing no efforts to make the bill move on. According to statistics by the Center for Responsive Politics, the film, music and TV industry, including Disney, News Corp, Time Warner and Sony, have spent more than 91 million U.S. dollars this year lobbying for the approval of SOPA bill.

It also got the support from the Motion Picture Association of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

"Internet criminals use illegal foreign websites to steal from New York companies and hard-working Americans," said a statement from the industry.

"Companies like Google have made billions by working with and promoting foreign rogue websites, so they have a vested interest in preventing Congress from stopping rogue sites," said Lamar Smith, author of the SOPA bill and chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.

（Source:Xinhua）