A bi-partisan group of members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, led by the Chairman Patrick Leahy, recently introduced a bill that would increase the government’s power to battle online violators of copyright laws. The bill, officially dubbed The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA), would give the Department of Justice (DOJ) the power to shut out infringing sites both domestically and abroad.
Domestically the COICA would allow the DOJ to stop internet pirates at the source. Domain operators of illegal sites would simply be served with an injunction forcing them to shut down and lock the entire infringing domain.
The more important effects of the bill would put an end to the government’s impotence against international internet pirates. Internet service providers (ISP’s) have the ability to block user access to any site, but have little, if any, obligation to get involved in the fray. The passivity on the part of ISP’s has historically allowed for foreign pirating sites to relax safely out of the reach of US jurisdiction. While the bill would not enable the DOJ to reach pirates abroad, it would give them the ability to force ISP’s to disallow US user access to infringing domains.
Critics of the COICA argue that it violates First Amendment rights and sends the wrong message. The argument is directed at the bill’s allowance for the DOJ to shut down entire domains rather than only the infringing part. By allowing this, the critics argue, vast amounts of legitimate, protected speech will be swallowed up by government censure. The argument continues that by allowing this censorship of the internet the US will join the ranks of the non-democratic, totalitarian regimes of the world that already engage in the practice.
Thus far, attempts to stop internet copyright infringement have been thoroughly thwarted. The Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) success in dismantling Napster was answered by pirates with new types of file sharing programs that continue to elude the grasp of the law. More recent lawsuits have limited US access infringing material, but many of those victories are now on appeal and fail to stop users from illegally accessing copyrighted material provided to them by overseas domains.
Given the unyielding perseverance and ingenuity of internet pirates, passage of the COICA is unlikely to be a cure-all. If the DOJ is granted the ability to stop ISP’s from providing access to illegal overseas-based websites it may, however, have a decided advantage in the fight.