In light of rising piracy of copyrighted material online, the Motion Picture Association has called for Congress to pass a law requiring some form of site blocking for websites that host illegal content. In a new insight, Director of Technology and Innovation Policy Jeffrey Westling walks through the proposals and cautions that if Congress attempts to prevent bad actors from intentionally hosting copyrighted material, it should do so without harming free speech online or adding serious compliance risk for intermediaries such as Internet service providers (ISPs).

Westling concludes:

Content piracy is a legitimate problem that Congress could take steps to more meaningfully address, but overbroad regulation can add significant burdens to both user speech and the ISPs ordered to block the infringing sites. No party wants to see bad actors flourish, but Congress must be careful to ensure that in taking down these websites, it does not cause significant harm to an open internet.

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