[ Thanks to Chao-Kuei
Hung for this link. ]
“Senator Patrick Leahy yesterday introduced the
“Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act” (COICA). This
flawed bill would allow the Attorney General and the Department of
Justice to break the Internet one domain at a time — by
requiring domain registrars/registries, ISPs, DNS providers, and
others to block Internet users from reaching certain websites. The
bill would also create two Internet blacklists. The first is a list
of all the websites hit with a censorship court order from the
Attorney General.“The second, more worrying, blacklist is a list of domain names
that the Department of Justice determines — without judicial
review — are “dedicated to infringing activities.” The bill
only requires blocking for domains in the first list, but strongly
suggests that domains on the second list should be blocked as well
by providing legal immunity for Internet intermediaries and DNS
operators who decide to block domains on the second blacklist as
well. (It’s easy to predict that there will be tremendous pressure
for Internet intermediaries of all stripes to block these “deemed
infringing” sites on the second blacklist.)”