Protect IP Act to Enable Courts to Kill Websites that Violate Intellectual Property

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Intellectual property and rights are a complicated matter, especially given the distribution potentials of the Web. But a new bill filed in the US Senate–and backed by movie studios–will essentially kill pirate websites.

Dubbed the “Protect IP” Act, the bill seeks to enable the Department of Justice and US courts to “expeditiously” order “interactive computer services” or “information location tools” to “remove or disable access to the Internet site associated with the domain name” referring to copyright infringers. Essentially, this means that websites that contain illegally-obtained or distributed content can be shut down from various means. This can include removing them from search listings, removing the domain from DNS servers, removing links from other sites, and more.

In addition, copyright holders can also give pirates the squeeze by cutting them off from financial transactions, such as internet advertising services, such that the suspected infringer won’t be able to do business online anymore (or at least have a hard time doing so). This might include the likes of Google AdSense and PayPal.

These steps seem to be in response to recent well-publicized cases in which either content or information was taken from the copyright owners and either distributed or built-upon without authorization. Take for instance, the GeoHot battle with Sony, the WikiLeaks episode with US embassy cables, and even the Sony PSN Downtime incident.

Critics of the bill have said the proposed law is essentially censorship with a different name. As expected, though, the MPAA and other copyright groups are backing the bill, as it will help curb piracy.

What do you think of this new bill that essentially gives the death sentence to websites? Will this be some sort of online Guantanamo Bay prison with a kill-now-ask-later policy on shutting down websites? Will this curb piracy, or also kill free speech altogether? Will this kill iPhone and console game jailbreaking?