Today Rep. Lamar Smith Announced he will remove the DNS blocking provisions in the Stop Online Piracy Act. His statement: “After consultation with industry groups across the country, I feel we should remove Domain Name System blocking from the Stop…
On December 30, Spain’s new Popular Party government announced the implementation of the “Sinde Law,” which allows a government agency to order the takedown of websites based on allegations of intellectual property infringement by rightholders. The government will also be…
Rep. Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has announced a January 18 hearing to “examine the potential impact of Domain Name Service (DNS) and search engine blocking on American cyber-security, jobs and the Internet…
Enclosed are my lecture notes from my talk on January 7, 2012 on a panel at the American Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. I have also included a printable version and a copy of the slides…
Spain’s newly elected Popular Party has implemented the controversial Law for Economic Sustainability (informally known as the “Sinde law” after outgoing Culture Minister Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde). Under the Sinde Law, rightholders can identify websites hosting infringing content to a government commission…
The markup of the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261) has begun, and over 55 amendments have been proposed to the bill. Over the next two days, the House Judiciary Committee will debate each of them. There is an Amendments…
Tomorrow the House Judiciary Committee will vote on HR 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act, which would give intellectual property right holders and the Department of Justice new weapons to use against websites that host infringing content. The legislation is…
Rep. Darrell Issa has posted the text of the Online Protection & Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (the OPEN Act) on an interactive webpage – – that allows people to comment on the text. The legislation is meant to…
Senators Cantwell, Moran, Warner and Wyden, and Representatives Chaffetz, Campbell, Doggett, Eshoo and Lofgren have released a discussion document summarizing IP legislation they are currently drafting to serve as an alternative to the Stop Online Piracy Act. It would allow…
On November 15, the European Parliament issued a resolution that “Stresses the need to protect the integrity of the global internet and freedom of communication by refraining from unilateral measures to revoke IP addresses or domain names.” The U.S. Department…
On November 16, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the controversial legislation introduced by Rep. Smith to give the executive branch and IP owners more tools to fight online piracy.…
On October 26, Rep. Lamar Smith introduced the Stopping Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261), also called the Enforcing and Protecting American Rights Against Sites Intent on Theft and Exploitation Act (E-PARASTE Act.) H.R. 3261 is the House version of the…