New bill would require blocking of pirate sites by ISP and search engines

October 26, 2011 By Mike Flacy

While sites that host and distribute pirated content continue to operate around the world, members of the House of Representatives are seeking a new legal method to shutting down access to copyrighted content.

Introduced within the House of Representatives today, a bill that would give the U.S. Attorney General power to order search engines and Internet service providers to block sites with pirated content was announced by a group of U.S. Representatives. Titled the Stop Online Piracy Act, the bill also gives copyright holders the ability to issue notifications to payment providers like Paypal when a site is selling copyrighted material. They will also be able to sent notifications to companies that specialize in Internet advertising, all without the assistance of a court. Finally, Web sites that make money off selling counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs will be facing much harsher penalties with new rules laid out in the bill.

The initial support of the bill comes from both political parties, but has to pass muster in the House before moving forward to the Senate and ultimately the President. However, this type of legislation isn’t susceptible to party politics as both sides mostly agree on copyright issues. If an ISP or payment provider decides to block access to an offending site, the bill waives all liability and the companies won’t face legal action from the site with copyrighted content or the public. However, if the service provider decides not to comply with any notification received from copyright holders, this bill allows the copyright holder to sue companies like Google and Paypal.

While this bill is receiving support from organizations like the RIAA and the MPAA, tech companies are very concerned that this expanded power may cripple organizations like YouTube. Based on the language in the bill, a single infringement would potentially cause advertisers to pull away from a popular site. There’s also concern that the broad, vague terms in the bill will also cover cloud-based storage, a possible location to store and distribute copyrighted material.

Showing 6 comments

jesterking at 10:45am 16th November 2011 This is being discussed right now in congress. Why isn't this on the front page?! This would set a terrible precedence in allowing big corporations even more control over our freedoms! No thank you. I don't want them having a kill switch in their pockets! Also, when the people shout to regulate the businesses congress calls those people socialists because we have a free markets economy and the markets will regulate themselves. But when corporations cry for regulation its all of a sudden, ok? hypocrites, thy name is congress.
1. Ian Bell at 1:27pm 16th November 2011 Jester, it was on our homepage! This story is from like 20+ days ago. :)
ckellyinc at 1:10pm 29th October 2011 THATS STUPID AND A WASTE OF MONEY IF I CANT GET IT OFF THE INTERNET THERE ARE A HANDFUL OF PEOPLE I KNOW THAT I CAN GET COPYRIGHTED CONTENT.THAT JUST SHOWS HOW DUMB AND PRESS THE GOVERNMENT IS AND AS WELL THE NEED TO TAKE A LOOK AT THEMSELFS BECAUSE THEY BE OUT THERE PAYIN FOR PROSITUTES AND WATCHIN ADULT AND KIDDIE PORN AND DOWNLOADING THAT AND AS WELL COPYRIGHTED CONTENT
Zipties at 4:33pm 27th October 2011 I feel this is bad timing, the public is already pissed off about wall street and I feel this may be another way for corporate elitist to home in on making money off of what is allot of public information. Blocking pirate site not only stops piracy but also puts a hindrance on freedom of speech and information (I get the majority of my new Linux releases from torrent sites like thepiratebay.com). I agree with Casey Maupin in that it is the users who are responsible certainly not search engines and especially not the ISP. But no doubtingly this bill will pass because congress and the house, as well as the president is owned by corporate lobbyists (MPAA, and the RIAA).
dslovejoy at 10:44am 27th October 2011 The people in charge don't like it when they feel that they don't have power over someone / something. The will slowly turn this country into a totalitarian fascist state.
Casey Maupin at 5:16am 27th October 2011 This is scary.. It is just censorship at another level. It is the person clicking on their computer screen who are held responsible. And should be treated as such. I hope this one fails - Hard.