DNS blockade removed from sopa bill

The proposer of the controversial US sopa bill says he will remove a controversial passage from the proposal. No longer do US providers have to block foreign piracy sites through DNS changes.

Republican Representative Lamar Smith made announced on Friday that he had decided ‘after talks with industry organizations’ to remove the DNS blockade from the bill. The proposer of the similar Protect IP bill, which has been introduced in the US Senate, would consider the same, writes Fox News.

Providers should therefore not have to block foreign sites that are accused of copyright infringement via DNS changes. However, the US government can make it difficult for such websites, for example by preventing advertising networks and payment providers from working with such sites.

The Sopa law has already been watered down: initially copyright holders would be allowed to take piracy sites offline without court intervention. It was later decided that a court order was still necessary.

The two controversial bills have been widely criticized. They are intended to make copyright infringement on the Internet impossible, but many companies and civil rights organizations believe the law goes too far.