Internet Piracy for Another Day

In Washington, the anti-piracy Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act probably seemed like a great idea: tough on crime, shut down Internet pirates, protect copyrights, that kind of thing. A few weeks ago, the Senate tried to fast-track the bill, with sponsor Patric Leahy (D-Vt.) apparently thinking it could sail through before the November elections.

But Silicon Valley had other ideas, and the bill was shelved last week after 96 Internet giants jumped in with a letter of protest. No matter how tough on crime the Senate wants to appear, when phrases like “fragmenting the Internet’s global domain name system” are being thrown around, they stop and pay attention.

The bill would create a whole new way to go after Internet pirates. The Justice Department would have the authority to designate some copyright-infringement sites (movie downloading sites, mostly) as “dedicated to infringing activities” and shut down their domain names.

They want to shut down domain names! Cracking down on illegal downloading is one thing, but shutting down domain names is pretty extreme. The Internet Engineers’ letter is all about censorship and destabilizing the global DNS, but it’s also worthy of note that the bill recommends punishments far out of proportion to the crime. In the physical world, after all, the FBI confiscates your bootleg DVD and leaves the rest of your stuff alone. Why the double standard?

I’m glad the letter from our 96 rock stars had such an impact. The bill isn’t dead, and will likely be taken up again when the Senate reconvenes in the new year, but the Senators are listening to both sides now.

What do you think of the anti-piracy bill?

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