US Senate panel passes bill against piracy websites

[saxamo]

WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - U.S. agencies and officials would get new powers to go after foreign websites that sell counterfeit goods and pirated music, movies and books under a bill passed on Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The bill, which supporters hope will set the stage for action next year, targets "rogue websites" in countries such as China that are outside the reach of U.S. law.

The measure, approved by the Senate panel in a 19-0 vote, has the backing of companies including Disney (DIS.N), Nike (NKE.N), Merck (MRK.N) and Time Warner (TWX.N) and groups such as the Screen Actors Guild, the Motion Picture Association of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Critics like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, have attacked it as "Internet censorship" that could harm the credibility of the United States as a steward of the global domain name system.

The panel approved the "Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act" with little time left this year for it to be passed by Congress and signed into law.

The bill allows the Justice Department to seek a court order against the domain name of websites offering illegal music or movie downloads or ones that sell counterfeit goods ranging from fake tennis shoes to pharmaceutical products.

Once the Justice Department has the order, it could shut down the site by requiring the U.S. registrar to suspend the domain name.

If the registry is located outside the United States, the U.S. Attorney General could go after the website by requiring U.S.-based Internet service providers, payment processors and advertising networks to stop doing business with it.

Committee aides said they worked with companies like MasterCard (MA.N), PayPal (PAPXX.O) and AT&T (T.N) to develop the legislation.

The bill was modified to address some concerns that critics raised. One provision was struck out that would have allowed the Justice Department to publish a "blacklist" of domain names that provide access to websites touting counterfeit or pirated goods, even if it did not seek a court order against them.

via: Reuters

Is this the end of Dealextreme, shoptemp, and other websites we have all come to know and love??

 

[DeMoN]

Meh, still a lot of good flash cart sellers based in the U.S. I'd rather buy from them either way because of faster shipping and better service.

 

[saxamo]

Seems like US based sites are not exempt. Officials have already made the case that R4 infringes copyright, attacking stores selling them or similar devices is just a small step after that.

 

[Matthew]

Shoptemp will survive

 

[Rowan]

So the sites can still survive. It just wont get money from ad companies in the US like google. Riiight?

 

[Zetta_x]

The government tries once again to control us for their own personal gain.

There will be ways around this.

 

[saxamo]

The government tries once again to control us for their own personal gain.

There will be ways around this.

Indeed, I see a birth of something similar to usenet, a new form of distributed undernet!

 

[chrisrlink]

hmmmm he US is gonna turn into what it once feared a communist country

 

[yuyuyup]

hmmmm he US is gonna turn into what it once feared a communist country

What the hell does this have to do with communism, it's huge businesses that are backing this thing

 

[Zetta_x]

That's why I don't like it. There is a lot of control going to businesses and the government and none to us.

 

[Pliskron]

hmmmm he US is gonna turn into what it once feared a communist country

I was thinking the same thing. We used to make fun of all the east German and soviet surveillance. Now they're digitally strip searching us and feeling our balls at the air port. Deciding what web sites we can see like China. Putting video cameras all over city. It defiantly feels like the overbearing communism that the world fought for so long.

 

[Ethevion]

Now's the time to shop while you can.

 

[htoxad]

hmmmm he US is gonna turn into what it once feared a communist country
What the hell does this have to do with communism, it's huge businesses that are backing this thing
QUOTE

the backing of companies including Disney (DIS.N), Nike (NKE.N), Merck (MRK.N) and Time Warner (TWX.N) and groups such as the Screen Actors Guild, the Motion Picture Association of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

...they worked with companies like MasterCard (MA.N), PayPal (PAPXX.O) and AT&T (T.N) to develop the legislation.

Communism!!!

 

[Pliskron]

hmmmm he US is gonna turn into what it once feared a communist country
What the hell does this have to do with communism, it's huge businesses that are backing this thing
QUOTE

the backing of companies including Disney (DIS.N), Nike (NKE.N), Merck (MRK.N) and Time Warner (TWX.N) and groups such as the Screen Actors Guild, the Motion Picture Association of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

...they worked with companies like MasterCard (MA.N), PayPal (PAPXX.O) and AT&T (T.N) to develop the legislation.

Communism!!!

Actually it's called stateism where the state controls the private sector and picks the winners and the loosers. Then the private companies give big donations to the politicians who write the laws they want passed. You think liberals are for the small guy? Hell no, they are the biggest offenders but Republicans also engage in this practice.

 

[nando]

i love how big companies love big government regulation when it comes to protecting them, but when it comes to protecting citizens by regulating big companies they call it socialism. fuck them all.

 

[saxamo]

Actually it's called stateism where the state controls the private sector and picks the winners and the loosers. Then the private companies give big donations to the politicians who write the laws they want passed. You think liberals are for the small guy? Hell no, they are the biggest offenders but Republicans also engage in this practice.

Thank you. Most communist countries of yesteryear and today (USSR, PRC, etc..) weren't authentic communism. Cuba may have something what's closest. Anyway, America's increasingly turning into an empire, if that line hasn't been broken already. For more information please see Naomi Wolf's documentary: The End of America (I'm in the audience)!

 

[Pliskron]

cool I'm going to check it out. What our government is doing by writing legislation for big companies in return for big donations is what the fascists did. It how Hitler bank rolled his rise to power. He had the bankers, big corporations like hugo boss, krup, bmw and vw

 

[trumpet-205]

So, can't we just use proxy to bypass this?

Seriously, it is companies themselves who need to figure out why people like counterfeit/pirated good and work from there, NOT government themselves.

Feinstein and Boxer, you are not getting my votes next time.

 

[Thesolcity]

This was passed already? What the....I thought it was only to be discussed and maybe voted in today....

 

[Schizoanalysis]

America's increasingly turning into an empire, if that line hasn't been broken already. For more information please see...

Turning? It is. For more information please read Slavoj Zizek.