Merged into DEFEND IP
DEFEND IP Act (Website Blocking)
25%of the way to law
Bad for your rightsIntroduced
- Introduced
- Passed House
- Passed Senate
- Became Law
Introduced in both chambers; referred to the Judiciary Committees
A bipartisan bill that would give the United States a court-run website-blocking system, ordering internet providers and DNS services to cut off sites that copyright holders accuse of piracy.
Latest update
Introduced in the House (H.R. 10575, Rep. Lofgren) and the Senate (S. 5529, Sen. Tillis); referred to the Judiciary Committees
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Contact CongressThe bill
Read H.R.10575H.R.10575 official recordS.5529 official recordKey facts
- Where
- United States
- Bill number
- H.R.10575 / S.5529 (119th)
- Status
- Introduced
- Introduced
- H.R.10575: September 24, 2026
S.5529: September 24, 2026 - Threat
- High
- Last update
- September 24, 2026
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What it does
Copyright owners could ask a federal court to designate any “foreign online location” as a foreign digital piracy site, and the definition covers any site whose operator “cannot be determined to be within the United States.” The court acts on a finding that the site “likely” infringes, can rule ex parte, and can block live-event streams before they happen. A site escapes only if its operator appears in a US court, submits to its jurisdiction and posts a bond. A second order then directs internet providers with 50,000 or more subscribers, and public DNS resolvers with more than $100 million in revenue, to block access from the United States; VPN-only services, encrypted-DNS-only resolvers and places like coffee shops and libraries are exempt. Orders last a year and can be extended, rights holders can add providers and chase a site to new domains or IP addresses by motion, and providers are immune from suits by their own users over good-faith blocking. Orders are posted on the Copyright Office website, and the law would take effect 180 days after enactment.
What’s at stake
The federal government has never held a broad power to block websites. This bill builds one into the country's internet providers and DNS services, and once the blocking machinery exists, the list of reasons to use it can grow. Anonymous sites are treated as foreign by default and can keep their access only by identifying their operators to a US court. When a block catches a lawful site, the provider is immune and the innocent site has to go to court to get unblocked.
Our take
DEFEND IP merges Rep. Zoe Lofgren's 2025 Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act (H.R. 791) with the Senate's Block BEARD Act, and the Senate sponsors are the same four: Tillis, Coons, Blackburn and Schiff. It revives the website-blocking power the entertainment industry has wanted since SOPA collapsed in 2012, with judges in place of an agency and piracy as the justification. A national blocking system, run through ISPs and DNS, with ex parte orders and immunity for overblocking, is censorship infrastructure whatever the first target is. The VPN exemption will not last long: once users route around ISP blocks, the pressure moves to the VPNs.
Timeline
Introduced in the House (H.R. 10575, Rep. Lofgren) and the Senate (S. 5529, Sen. Tillis); referred to the Judiciary CommitteesLatest
The record
Sponsor
Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)
Cosponsors (1)
Ben Cline (R-VA)
Committee
House Judiciary Committee, Senate Judiciary Committee
Previous versions
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