United States Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) today proposed a law that would let copyright owners get court orders needing Internet service companies to obstruct access to foreign piracy sites. The expense would likewise require DNS companies to obstruct websites.

Lofgren stated in a news release that she “work[ed] for over a year with the tech, film, and television industries” on “a proposal that has a remedy for copyright infringers located overseas that does not disrupt the free Internet except for the infringers.” Lofgren stated she prepares to deal with Republican leaders to enact the expense.

Lofgren’s news release consists of a quote from Charles Rivkin, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). As we’ve formerly composed, the MPA has actually been prompting Congress to pass a site-blocking law.

“More than 55 nations around the world, including democracies such as Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, have put in place tools similar to those proposed by Rep. Lofgren, and they have successfully reduced piracy’s harms while protecting consumer access to legal content,” Rivkin was estimated as stating in Lofgren’s news release today.

Lofgren is the ranking member of your house Science, Space, and Technology Committee and a member of your home Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet.

Expense called “censorious site-blocking” step

Lofgren stated her proposed Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act “preserves the open Internet,” customer advocacy group Public Knowledge explained the costs as a “censorious site-blocking” procedure “that turns broadband providers into copyright police at Americans’ expense.”

“Rather than attacking the problem at its source—bringing the people running overseas piracy websites to court—Congress and its allies in the entertainment industry has decided to build out a sweeping infrastructure for censorship,” Public Knowledge Senior Policy Counsel Meredith Rose stated. “Site-blocking orders force any service provider, from residential broadband providers to global DNS resolvers, to disrupt traffic from targeted websites accused of copyright infringement. More importantly, applying blocking orders to global DNS resolvers results in global blocks. This means that one court can cut off access to a website globally, based on one individual’s filing and an expedited procedure. Blocking orders are incredibly powerful weapons, ripe for abuse, and we’ve seen the messy consequences of them being implemented in other countries.”