Intellectual Property Law

Tell Your Senator: No Website Blacklists, No Internet Censorship!

By richard

The "Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act" (COICA) is yet another attempt to squash online copyright infringement — this time using dangerous, overbroad procedures that would take huge numbers of law-abiding websites offline, censor speech and curtail Internet freedom worldwide.

The bill would allow the Attorney General and the Department of Justice to break the Internet one domain at a time — by requiring ISPs, domain registrars, DNS providers, and others to block Internet users from reaching certain websites. Chillingly, the bill also allows the Justice Department to create a de facto blacklist of sites "dedicated to infringing activities" that ISPs and others will be encouraged to block.

And there is a serious danger that COICA could damage Internet freedom worldwide. In the past, the United States has tried to convince other countries to respect citizens' fundamental right to free speech. But with this bill, the United States risks telling countries throughout the world, "Unilateral censorship of websites that the government doesn't like is okay — and this is how you do it."

Reports say that the Senate is moving fast and may try to pass this bill by Wednesday, September 29. It's crucial to act now and let your Senator know that COICA is unacceptable before any votes take place!

Full post as published by Electronic Freedom Foundation - Deep Links on September 28, 2010 (boomark / email).