1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

I’m writing to urge you to oppose the Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act (H.R. 791) and any similar bills that would allow court-ordered blocking of entire websites. These proposals threaten due process, restrict lawful speech, and set a dangerous precedent for government-mandated internet censorship. The bill claims to be created to not restrict free speech and require due process but that is never the case. So long as any mechanism exists that can stop people from accessing speech on the internet, it violates the First Amendment. Additionally, this bill only serves to help giant media companies in bullying anyone they want by proclaiming some kind of copyright infringement to get a site blocked. This power can and will be used by anyone who claims anything said is somehow an infringement. It is also very clear and obvious fact at this point that site blocking is a completely pointless endeavor. There are tools to get around blocks. content can simply be reposted again on another site, and when sites are taken offline, it affects a huge amount of collateral damage as no one site lives as just one webpage online. This bill has no understanding of how the internet works because it was written by movie studio executives and not by anyone with any knowledge of technology. Please stand up for a free and open internet by rejecting site-blocking legislation.