Has proposed a law that would need Internet service providers and other network operators to block foreign piracy websites.
Issa is the latest in a string of Republican and Democratic lawmakers to propose a site-blocking government that’s been sought by the Motion Picture Association.
Advocacy groups opposing his bill say it would impose a broad censorship government and disrupt small businesses falsely accused of piracy.
The bill proposes having courts issue site-blocking orders to ISPs, DNS providers, and VPN services that have at least 100,000 monthly users or subscribers in the US.
In a September 2025 report on Italy’s Piracy Shield system, researchers at the University of Twente in the Netherlands said they found that at least “hundreds of legitimate websites [were] unknowingly affected by blocking.”
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Summarized version
Issa is the latest in a string of Republican and Democratic lawmakers to propose a site-blocking government that’s been sought by the Motion Picture Association.
The report’s most important sentence, shortened and in plain words. How
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All two things this headline claims are in the report.
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The article, shortened and in plain language
Has proposed a law that would need Internet service providers and other network operators to block foreign piracy websites. Issa’s bill would help copyright holders get judicial blocking orders to be served to ISPs, domain name resolution services, and virtual private networks.
Issa is the latest in a string of Republican and Democratic lawmakers to propose a site-blocking government that’s been sought by the Motion Picture Association.
Issa argued that online piracy helps fund terrorist groups and other criminal networks. Advocacy groups opposing his bill say it would impose a broad censorship government and disrupt small businesses falsely accused of piracy.
Issa’s bill was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
The bill proposes having courts issue site-blocking orders to ISPs, DNS providers, and VPN services that have at least 100,000 monthly users or subscribers in the US.
Under Issa’s proposed system, a copyright owner could ask a court to issue a declaration that an online place is a “foreign piracy site” based on “a preponderance of the evidence” that it is a foreign site primarily designed for piracy. After a court makes that declaration, the copyright owner could petition for a court order needing network operators to block the alleged piracy site.
In April 2024, MPA CEO Charles Rivkin said the group would “ work with members of Congress ” to need Internet service providers to block piracy websites.
In a September 2025 report on Italy’s Piracy Shield system, researchers at the University of Twente in the Netherlands said they found that at least “hundreds of legitimate websites [were] unknowingly affected by blocking.”
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