A bipartisan group of U.S. senators want to go after overseas websites that traffic in pirated entertainment, such as movies and music.

 

The effort, known as the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, seeks to put file-sharing websites, like the Sweden-based The Pirate Bay, out of business by requiring any American company to stop doing business with them and for Internet service providers in the U.S. to block Americans from accessing them.

 

The bill is sponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) and senior Republican member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), and co-sponsored by Democrats such as Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Charles Schumer of New York and Dick Durbin of Illinois.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

New Bill Would Require U.S. ISPs to Block Pirate Sites (by Mark Hachman, PC Magazine)

The Pirate Bay Hunted in the US (Agence France-Presse)

Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (pdf)