coica

Leahy's Protect IP bill even worse than COICA

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) today introduced a revised version of a controversial bill that would give the Department of Justice and individuals new powers to enforce copyright and trademark law against "rogue" and "pirate" Web sites that offer unlicensed copies of protected content or which sell illegal knock-offs of brand-name goods.

The new bill was long expected. A late draft leaked out last week.

The proposed law, "Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property" or Protect IP, includes several revisions to a draft introduced last year, known then as &… Read more

Senate bill amounts to death penalty for Web sites

A new bill backed by movie studios and other large copyright holders takes a novel approach to curbing access to piratical Web sites: an Internet death penalty.

That's a good way to describe the approach adopted by the legislation introduced today, which specifies a step-by-step method for making Web sites suspected of infringing copyrights or trademarks vanish from the Internet. It's called the Protect IP Act.

The U.S. Department of Justice would receive the power to seek a court order against an allegedly infringing Web site, and then serve that order on search engines, certain Domain Name … Read more

Will Google testify at Senate antipiracy hearing?

U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy appears to have chosen a different approach to getting an antipiracy bill through Congress than the one he pursued last fall.

Ahead of a Senate hearing to discuss online piracy scheduled for next Wednesday, Leahy's staff has met in recent days with representatives of Google and other companies about their objections to his antipiracy plans, participants in the talks told CNET yesterday.

Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, saw an antipiracy bill he attempted to rush through the Senate late last year held up just before Congress adjourned. If … Read more

Senator who opposes antipiracy bill under pressure?

Supporters of an antipiracy bill introduced into the Senate last year appear ready to put some pressure on one of the legislation's chief opponents.

Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, was instrumental in blocking the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) late last year. COICA was introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and passed in that committee unanimously. But it was derailed when Wyden opposed it. Individual senators can place holds on pending legislation.

Since the legislation was introduced very late in the prior congressional session, Wyden's opposition forced supporters … Read more

Senate panel approves domain name seizure bill

A controversial proposal allowing the government to pull the plug on Web sites accused of aiding piracy is closer to becoming a federal law.

After a flurry of last-minute lobbying from representatives of content providers including the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), a Senate committee approved the measure today by a unanimous vote.

In the last week, support for the bill known as COICA, for Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, broadened beyond groups traditionally active in online copyright disputes to include the Newspaper Association of America, which said the legislation … Read more