(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); When it really matters to them, Congressmembers can come together -- with a panache and wry wit you didn't know they had. As banned books week gets underway, and President Obama admonishes oppressive regimes for their censorship of the Internet, a group of powerful Senators -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- have signed onto a bill that would vastly expand the government's power to censor the Internet.

The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) was introduced just one week ago, but it's greased and ready to move, with a hearing in front of the Judiciary Committee this Thursday. If people don't speak out, US citizens could soon find themselves joining Iranians and Chinese in being blocked from accessing broad chunks of the public Internet.

Help us stop this bill in its tracks! Click You must login or register to view this content. to sign our petition.

COICA creates two blacklists of Internet domain names. Courts could add sites to the first list; the Attorney General would have control over the second. Internet service providers and others (everyone from Comcast to PayPal to Google AdSense) would be required to block any domains on the first list. They would also receive immunity (and presumably the good favor of the government) if they block domains on the second list.

The lists are for sites "dedicated to infringing activity," but that's defined very broadly -- any domain name where counterfeit goods or copyrighted material are "central to the activity of the Internet site" could be blocked.

One example of what this means in practice: sites like YouTube could be censored in the US. Copyright holders like Viacom often argue copyrighted material is central to the activity of YouTube, but under current US law, YouTube is perfectly legal as long as they take down copyrighted material when they're informed about it -- which is why Viacom lost to YouTube in court.

But if COICA passes, Viacom wouldn't even need to prove YouTube is doing anything illegal to get it shut down -- as long as they can persuade the courts that enough other people are using it for copyright infringement, the whole site could be censored.

Perhaps even more disturbing: Even if Viacom couldn't get a court to compel censorship of a YouTube or a similar site, the DOJ could put it on the second blacklist and encourage ISPs to block it even without a court order. (ISPs have ample reason to abide the will of the powerful DOJ, even if the law doesn't formally require them to do so.)

COICA's passage would be a tremendous blow to free speech on the Internet -- and likely a first step towards much broader online censorship. Please help us fight back: The first step is signing our petition. We'll give you the tools to share it with your friends and call your Senator.

Segal, David. "David Segal: Stop the Internet Blacklist." The Huffington Post. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. <https://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-segal/stop-the-internet-blackli_b_739836.html>.

What do you guys think? In the United States, a new law proposal called COICA was introduced last week, and there will be a hearing in front of the Judiciary Committee this Thursday.

If passed, this law will allow the government, under the command of the media companies, to censor the internet as they see fit, like China and Iran do, with the difference that the sites they decide to censor will be completely removed from the internet and not just in the US.

THIS PISSES ME OFF!!!! I recently moved to Jordan and I download lots of 360 games cause i got my 360 patched here. They will probably remove the sites I download that from :/ this is horrible! SIGN THE PETITION!

Some people just won't embrace technology always trying to stop it somehow from growing

the internet grows and with it grows the ability to gather uncensored information, governments dont like this, and neither do companys that feel they would be making alot more money if it wasnt for piracy

I can understand the piracy thing, surely they dont like it... but its gonna happen and they cant stop it they just need to find a way to adapt / compromise

So er, where does all this freedom shit come into play in this day and age? Can we not actually do anything at all without it being illegal? I know I'm in England but if this passes and is successful in the states, then it's most likely going to happen here. It's bullshit. We can't seem to be able to do anything these days. People moan about everything.

Think of the internet as a council estate (or ghetto), once one drug dealer is busted, there is always a motherfukker ready to take his place. My point? I wouldnt worry too much about accessing copyright material, they will never be able to stop that.

heres what makes me mad, not only are they gonna block it, there taking it down from the internet so no one in the world can see it. Its none of the us governments business what sites i can go to in Jordan.

This is stupid, it's a free country, they don't have the right to do this.

(In m oppinion XD)

It's against American Rights. We have the right to free speech and press. The internet is a place to gather mostly free information, news, photos and videos. Censorship of these things is absurd.

If this passes then frankly the government needs getting rid of. They're in the pockets of big corporations and media giants, it's a joke.

Well, I just hope this doesn't happen in Australia