- United States
- Ariz.
- Letter
Vote no on H.R. 10364, the American Copyright Protection Act. This bill would let copyright holders get court orders forcing ISPs, DNS providers, and VPNs to block Americans from accessing foreign websites — and the initial "foreign piracy site" designation can happen without the accused site ever appearing in court to defend itself. That's a serious due process problem no procedural tweak can fix.
The real-world track record on site-blocking should alarm anyone who cares about an open internet. Italy's "Piracy Shield" program accidentally blocked 510 legitimate websites, including a Catholic convent and a telehealth platform. Spain's system blocked over 550,000 domains during soccer broadcasts, sweeping up Greenpeace and Harvard University. ACPA would build that same infrastructure here, and it goes further than previous proposals by explicitly targeting VPNs and broadening the definition of a piracy site to include pages with even limited legitimate commerce. Congress killed SOPA and PIPA for exactly these reasons. Don't revive them under a new name.