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Senate Panel Passes Anti-Piracy Bill

  • Reuters, Thursday, November 18, 2010 2:09 PM
A Senate panel just passed a bill giving U.S. agencies and officials new powers to battle foreign websites that sell counterfeit goods, pirated music, movies and books. "The bill, which supporters hope will set the stage for action next year, targets 'rogue websites' in countries such as China that are outside the reach of U.S. law," Reuters reports. Not surprisingly, the so-called "Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act" was vigorously backed by the likes of Disney, Nike, Merck and Time Warner, along with the Screen Actors Guild, the Motion Picture Association of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

According to Reuters, "The bill allows the Justice Department to seek a court order against the domain name of websites offering illegal music or movie downloads or ones that sell counterfeit goods ranging from fake tennis shoes to pharmaceutical products." Still, the bill does have its critics like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, which portrays the measure as "Internet censorship." Right.

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