In recent weeks, law professors and Internet free speech advocates have sounded an alarm at what appeared to be the imminent passage of S. 3804, the Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act. The legislation, if passed, would give the government the right to block Americans’ access to an entire web site, merely through the unchallenged assertion that one page, one file, one picture on the web site was presented in violation of copyright law. The government would be able to go to a judge and obtain the power of censorship without any open hearing in which the censored web site would be able to defend its use of allegedly copyrighted material.
Yesterday, the House of Representatives did indeed pass a copyright bill. The legislation it passed, however, was S. 3689, the Copyright Cleanup, Clarification, and Corrections Act. That bill does not contain the broad censorship powers proposed in S. 3804.
Was S. 3689 passed instead of S. 3804? Will the Republican House choose to reintroduce the Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act in the 112th Congress?
Stay tuned…
