US House of Representatives Introduces New Bill Aimed at Blocking Foreign Piracy Sites
The act would come on top of existing legislation within the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) has introduced a bill designed to expedite federal blocks on foreign piracy sites. Should the bill pass, copyright owners could directly petition federal judges to block sites after a proper judicial review.
The details:
Issa claims the current procedures for such blocks in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) are too slow to properly address the current digital landscape.
If a judge were to find a webpage was a qualifying “foreign piracy site,” the court could order service providers to block access in the US.
The orders could then be adjusted or rescinded based on further legal action.
Brandon Butler, Executive Director of Re:Create, the advocacy group focusing on the US copyright system, opposes the bill.
He says it will lead to more censorship rather than policing bad actors.
What they said:
Butler: “By codifying a one-sided legal process modeled on European site-blocking laws, which have been shown to cause widespread censorship, this bill violates American due process, First Amendment rights, and American ingenuity.”
Public Knowledge Senior Policy Counsel, Meredith Rose: “Rather than attacking the problem at its source by bringing the people running overseas piracy websites to court, Congress and its entertainment industry allies have decided to build out a sweeping infrastructure for censorship. Site-blocking orders force any service provider, from residential broadband providers to global DNS resolvers, to disrupt traffic from targeted websites simply accused of copyright infringement.”
👋 Disclosures & Transparency Block
This article was written with information sourced from Digital Music News.
We covered it because this legislation could affect labels and other rightsholders in the music industry.
