Lots of people have been speaking up about why PROTECT IP is a terrible, terrible idea that will have massive unintended consequences for innovation online. We’ve seen the biggest names in venture capital tell Congress that PROTECT IP would chill investment in new innovations. We’ve seen top technologists explain how PROTECT IP messes with fundamental infrastructure and security elements of the internet. And we’ve had a bunch of well respected law professors explain to Congress that the bill is almost certainly unconstitutional.

One voice has been missing, however: the actual tech entrepreneurs and startup execs who will be impacted most directly, because PROTECT IP will put both the costs of compliance and the burdens of liability directly on their shoulders. Entrepreneurs are famous for staying out of policy debates like this. This isn’t a surprise. Entrepreneurs are focused on building the next great innovation and the next great company — creating lots of new jobs both directly in their companies and via the new innovations and platforms they create.

PROTECT IP is such a dreadful, job killing bill that it’s finally sparked entrepreneurs to speak out. A large group of entrepreneurs, both well known and less well known, have teamed up to send a letter to Congress warning about the impact of PROTECT IP, and asking them to reject this bill which is nothing more than an attempt to give a handout to the entertainment industry. Over 135 entrepreneurs have already signed on (yes, including me). Collectively, these entrepreneurs have directly created over 50,000 new jobs in their companies, but more importantly have created hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of jobs via their innovations, platforms and services.

It’s great to see such a diverse group of startup entrepreneurs — many of them serial entrepreneurs — team up on such an issue. The list of participants includes folks like Evan Williams, the founder of Twitter and Blogger, Ian Rogers, the CEO of TopSpin, Mark Pincus, founder and CEO of Zynga, Dennis Crowley, founder & CEO of FourSquare, Joel Spolsky from StackExchange & Fog Creek Software and Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn. It includes people like Chris Shipley of Guidewire Group, who for years ran the DEMO conferences and Tim O’Reilly (who I’ll just assume you know because you’ve read the books he’s published). It includes entrepreneurs from great platforms like Kickstarter, IndieGoGo and GiltGroupe. And there may be some names on the list that you might not recognize today, but who are building the next generation of great startups to produce services that you will use in the future. It’s really a who’s who of entrepreneurs who helped build the key internet services you use today and will use in the future — and they’re all quite reasonably scared of what PROTECT IP means and how it will chill innovation in the startup community.

All of us who put together this letter want to make sure that the voice of entrepreneurs is heard loud and clear — and as such, we’re still accepting additional signatures from entrepreneurs. If you’ve been a founder or held a job-creating role at a startup, please sign the letter as well, following the instructions at the top of the document, and we can continue to make sure that the voice of the folks who really create new jobs and support the economy are actually heard from in DC.

Members of Congress and the President claim that they’re focused on passing legislation that creates jobs. So why are so many pushing for PROTECT IP, when the companies who actually innovate and create the new jobs for the future are so against it?

QlikTech, (NASDAQ: QLIK) a leader in Business Discovery – user-driven Business Intelligence (BI), today announced that its online community for its QlikView product, QlikCommunity, now unites more than 62,000 users around the globe. Members share experiences using the QlikView Business Discovery platform and provide support to other members trying to solve technical problems. Averaging nearly 100 new registrants each business day, QlikCommunity’s growth proves that a user-driven, self-service BI approach must support business users’ needs for a personalized, collaborative self-service support environment.

QlikCommunity’s success is due largely to the low-cost, self-service, user-friendly resource it provides registered users. These resources range from discussion forums to sharing QlikView experiences and finding answers to questions, to user-generated content such as best practices, how-to’s, and product documentation. Nearly 300 user-generated contributions are posted daily, including technical questions, comments, and feedback, with users tapping the QlikView Development Community as their top spot when seeking information about how to get the most out of QlikView.

“QlikCommunity has helped our developers quickly search for solutions to complex problems,” said Brian Veara, ThedaCare’s Manager of Decision Resources. “Our end user community is looking for us to rapidly respond to their needs, and the QlikCommunity is a great tool that services that need. It also allows us to explore more creative solutions than we would have initially developed.”

With the ever increasing demand on IT to deliver, support, and maintain new technology, while adhering to rigorous service levels, the need for innovative, self-service support solutions to assist them in their challenging roles has never been greater. In response to these challenges, QlikTech offers an integrated portfolio of both traditional and community-based support services that are developed to fit customers’ growing business needs.

The combination of QlikView and QlikCommunity enables business users not only to perform tasks that in the past would have required assistance from an IT professional, but also find answers to support questions on the fly. In both situations, IT becomes a partner to business users rather than a roadblock.

“Today’s business users need to make quicker decisions backed by clean, relevant information. This means that queuing up and waiting for IT to generate a report just doesn’t cut it anymore,” said Doug Laird, vice president of Global Marketing at QlikTech. “This is why QlikView’s self-service Business Discovery solution – backed by QlikCommunity – is providing a boost to these users by enabling them to quickly react to changing market conditions. This combination has taken our support to the next level, and is a true testament to the compelling content and engaging experiences enabled through QlikCommunity today.”

QlikTech’s powerful, accessible Business Discovery solution bridges the gap between traditional business intelligence (BI) solutions and standalone office productivity applications. Its QlikView Business Discovery platform enables intuitive user-driven analysis that can be implemented in days or weeks rather than months, years, or not at all. QlikView’s in-memory associative search technology allows users to explore information freely in a Google-like experience rather than being confined to a predefined path of questions. QlikView Business Discovery works with existing BI applications and adds new capabilities: insight for everyone, zero-wait analysis, mobility, an app–like model, remixability and reassembly and a social and collaborative experience.

To find out more about QlikCommunity, or to register as a new member, please visit: http://community.qlikview.com.

About QlikTech

QlikTech (NASDAQ: QLIK) is a leader in Business Discovery — user-driven Business Intelligence (BI). QlikTech’s powerful, accessible Business Discovery solution bridges the gap between traditional business intelligence solutions and standalone office productivity applications. Its QlikView Business Discovery platform enables intuitive user-driven analysis that can be implemented in days or weeks rather than months, years, or not at all. The in-memory associative search technology it pioneered allows users to explore information freely rather than being confined to a predefined path of questions. QlikView Business Discovery works with existing BI applications and adds new capabilities: insight for everyone, zero-wait analysis, mobility, an app—like model, remixability and reassembly, and a social and collaborative experience. Headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania, QlikTech has offices around the world serving more approximately 21,000 customers in over 100 countries.

QlikTech and QlikView are trademarks or registered trademarks of QlikTech or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. Other company names, product names and company logos mentioned herein are the trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective owners.