Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren – who sits on the the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee and the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, AI and the Internet – is launching another battle in the “war on piracy.”
The stated intent behind the bill she introduced – HB 791 – is supposed to be evident from its name: the Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act (FADPA).
We obtained a copy of the bill for you here.
And Lofgren insists it will at once protect US consumers, creative community and workers from foreign internet piracy, and, “preserve the open internet.” But there are concerns that were it to become law, HB could pave the way for mass site blocking.
FADPA is the first time since the hugely controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) failed more than a decade ago, that US legislators have tried to revisit the issue of copyright infringement. Ironically, Lofgren at the time opposed SOPA, but now thinks her proposal is better.
Lofgren, a California Democrat, said she worked “closely” with Hollywood in drafting the bill, which would let copyright holders force ISPs to block sites accused of hosting pirate streams.
How this might play out in the real world (this time, on the internet) is another matter. If the notorious Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is anything to go by, the fear of abuse, as copyright holders are able to remove content including in cases where the notices are false, does not seem unfounded.
FADPA is seen by some observers as even more flawed, in this sense, than the DMCA.
But the bill was introduced after several months of negotiations between tech companies and those producing content, with the goal of ensuring its constitutionality, and enforceability, but also, so that it does not impose “undue liabilities.”
Not surprisingly, the bill has received support from the Motion Picture Association (MPA), the Authors Guild, the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), the Copyright Alliance, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA), as well as the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF).
And Congresswoman Lofgren hopes to “continue work” on anti-piracy legislation with House Republicans.
