US Senate preparing a bill to counter online copyright infringement

A senatorial working group in the US has presented a bill addressing online copyright infringement. The bill, developed by members of the Senate Justice Committee, is formally called the “Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act,” provides the Department of Justice with tools to track and shut down sites that provide users with opportunities for downloading without, streaming or sales of copyrighted content.

More specifically, the bill proposes a number of measures to better enforce copyright online, mainly directed at blocking sites that have as only purpose to make available copyrighted content without authorisation.

First of all, the Attorney General (AG) may approach courts to file a temporary injunction for sites against which legal actions are taken. The bill authorises the AG to commence civil action against suspect sites and request district courts that the site be blocked permanently. The Department of Justice needs to publish a notion of the action as soon as it is filed. This notice needs to meet clear criteria about the site’s substantial and repeating role in facilitating piracy or counterfeiting.

As a measure to ensure a fair application of the act, the Attorney General will create and publish a list of sites that it deems exist only to facilitate copyright infringements. When site admins feel that their site is unjustly mentioned on the list, they can petition the AG, who will then determine whether placement on the list was justified. If site owners do not agree with the AG’s final word, they may request a judicial review.

This bill resembles a course of action that Dutch anti-piracy organisation BREIN took when it moved for an injunction to force Ziggo, the largest ISP in the Netherlands, to block access to The Pirate Bay to its customers.

BREIN was unsuccessful, as the judge ruled that the complete blocking of sites was not a proportional measure to deal with file-sharing, but that this issue needed to be dealt with on the level of individuals.