"More than a decade ago, Congress tried to pass SOPA and PIPA-two sweeping bills that would have allowed the government and copyright holders to quickly shut down entire websites based on allegations of piracy. The backlash was massive. Internet users, free speech advocates, and tech companies flooded lawmakers with protests, culminating in an "Internet Blackout" on January 18, 2012. Turns out, Americans don't like government-run internet blacklists. The bills were ultimately shelved."
"But we've never believed they were gone for good. The major media and entertainment companies that backed site blocking in the US in 2012 turned to pushing for site-blocking laws in other countries. Rightsholders continued to ask US courts for site-blocking orders, often winning them without a new law. And sure enough, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and its allies have asked Congress to try again."
"There were no less than three Congressional drafts of site-blocking legislation. Representative Zoe Lofgren kicked off the year with the Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act (FADPA) . Fellow House of Representatives member Darrell Issa also claimed to be working on a bill that would make it offensively easy for a studio to block your access to a website based solely on the belief that there is infringement happening. Not to be left out, the Senate Judiciary Committee produced the terribly named Block BEARD Act ."
A decade-old push for broad site-blocking authority resurfaces through legislative drafts and court actions. Past proposals like SOPA and PIPA would have allowed swift shutdowns of entire websites based on piracy allegations, provoking massive public backlash and an Internet blackout that led to shelving those bills. Rights holders and major entertainment companies continued pursuing site-blocking through other countries and court orders. Multiple recent Congressional drafts and industry lobbying signal revived interest in site-blocking. Site blocking would enable censorship-like blacklists, fail to fix prior flaws, and pose serious risks to free expression online.
Read at Electronic Frontier Foundation
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