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Bill Would Give Justice Department Power to Prohibit Internet Domains Worldwide
Lawmakers introduced legislation Monday that would let the Justice Department seek U.S. court orders against websites anywhere in the world, and shut them down through the sites domain registration.The bipartisan legislation is dubbed the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (.pdf file). The recording industry and movie studios have been clamoring for such a capability. If passed, the Justice Department could ask a federal court for an injunction that would order a U.S. domain registrar or registry to stop resolving an infringing sites domain name, so that visitors would get an address error. In todays global economy the internet has become the glue of international commerce - connecting consumers with a wide array of products and services worldwide, said Sen. Orin Hatch (R-Utah) in a statement announcing the bill. But its also become a tool for online thieves to sell counterfeit and pirated goods, making hundreds of millions of dollars off of stolen American intellectual property. The bill would direct injunctions at a sites domain registrar, if the registration was through a U.S. company. If not, the Justice Department could serve the court order at the registry for the sites top-level domain. Registrys for the dot-com, dot-net and dot-org domains are all U.S.-based, and thus within the courts jurisdiction. For domains not under U.S. control, the bill would demand that internet service providers in the United States block resolution of the address upon a court order, but overseas users would not be impacted. The Great Firewall of America, a wholly owned subsidiary of the administration of the US president. Eric H. Holder, Jr., CEO, CFO. Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-09-21 |
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