Washington, D.C. – Members of the Re:Create coalition released the following statements in reaction to oral arguments today before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which will decide whether the International Trade Commission (ITC) has the authority to block digital transmissions.

“The ITC’s power grab should be alarming to both consumers and Congress. If the ITC gets its way, consumers may see new bottlenecks in the free flow of information across the internet. Congress should be concerned that special interests are seeking to impose back door regulations that would implement the very ideas they rejected when SOPA failed to pass,” said Wayne Brough, Chief Economist and Vice President of Research at FreedomWorks.

“The extensive press coverage of the ClearCorrect v. ITC case demonstrates the importance of this issue, which could affect every Internet user and every Internet business. The potential for the content industry to wield the ITC against consumers, to implement website blocking strategies rejected by Congress, weighs heavily against the ITC and should strongly favor the Federal Circuit’s reversal of that Commission’s unprecedented and unwarranted decision,” said Charles Duan, Director of the Patent Reform Project at Public Knowledge.