A group of Senators with clout on both sides of the political fence are rallying to expand the Government's authority to censor the Internet.
The "Combating Online Infringement & Counterfeits Act" was slyly presented to law-makers in late September - and according to insiders on-the-hill - is ready to rock 'n roll.
First up on the agenda?
A hearing before the Judiciary Committee.
Opponents are crying foul on the grounds that U.S. Citizens may soon find themselves joining Iranians and Chinese in the hapless ranks of those being blocked from accessing broad chunks of the public Internet.
COICA, if enacted, would create two blacklists consisting of Internet domain names.
The Courts would be granted the power to add sites to the first COICA enforcementlist ; the Attorney General, control over a 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.
The entities would also receive immunity (and the presumed good favor of the government) if they also blocked domains on the second list.
The lists are for sites "dedicated to infringing activity".
For example, any domain name where counterfeit goods or copyrighted material are "central to the activity of the Internet site" could be blocked.
If you read between the lines, under current U.S. Law, pop culture sites like - YouTube - could be censored because US. Copyright holders like Viacom have argued that copyrighted material is central to their activity.
YouTube is perfectly legal - currently - as long as they take down copyrighted material when they're informed about the Violation.
If COICA passes, critics are concerned that Viacom wouldn't need to prove "wrong-doing" by YouTube to shut the site down.
Lawyers would only have to persuade the courts that a significant number of people were using the "YouTube" web-site to infringe on copyrights.
Failing that road of pursuit, Viacom could petition the DOJ to put the social hub on the second blacklist, and encourage ISPs to block it even without a court order.
According to opponents, ISPs have ample reason to abide by the will of the powerful DOJ, even if the law doesn't formally require them to do so.
In the final analysis, COICA's passage may be a tremendous blow to free speech on the Internet.
Those who are opposed to that end scenario, therefore, need to sit up and take action.
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