United States Residents/Americans!

Congress has introduced a slew of bills that would allow them to block any site merely accused of "facilitating piracy:" Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act, American Copyright Protection Act, BLOCK BEARD Act, and DEFEND IP Act.

The only difference between these bills is their scope:
-DEFEND IP Act: Would allow companies to ask federal courts to formally classify specified foreign sites as piracy hubs. The court would then order DNS and ISP service providers to block access to designated sites.

-BLOCK BEARD Act: Would allow the US Government/law enforcement to legally pressure infrastructure and domain registry providers into blocking/kicking out customer sites accused of piracy.

-ACPA: Would direct law enforcement and court remedies against illegal streaming and piracy hubs.

-FADPA: Would allow the US Government/law enforcement to shut down advertising networks and payment processors that service sites accused of piracy.

All of these bills have few, if any guardrails against bad faith usage. As a result, these bills are just thin veils to silence and punish any website that doesn't toe the line. Many innocent websites will be caught in the crossfire.

Of course, copyright maximalists like the MPAA and RIAA absolutely love these bills and are heavily lobbying for their passage.

While some of these bills were introduced late, which makes standalone passage during the 119th Congress unlikely, they can certainly be sneaked into a must-pass bill (such as the NDAA).

Please call your Senators and Representatives!

#Privacy #Censorship #DigitalRights #FreeSpeech #Internet #Piracy #Copyright #IP #US #UnitedStates