U.S. Site Blocking Bill Adds VPNs to the List of Blocking Intermediaries

Rep. Darrell Issa’s American Copyright Protection Act lets copyright holders ask a federal court to declare a website a “foreign piracy site” and obtain blocking orders that compel specified intermediaries to prevent access. The bill expands the definition of covered “service providers” beyond ISPs and DNS resolvers to explicitly include virtual private network providers with 100,000 or more monthly U.S. users, while excluding root nameserver operators and top-level domain registries. Targeted providers must take “commercially reasonable” steps within 14 to 30 days to stop users from accessing the designated sites from the United States, and courts can shorten that deadline for “time-sensitive” events such as live sports broadcasts or leaks that appear within 24 hours of release.

The text leaves key technical questions unresolved for VPNs: it does not specify whether blocking must occur only on U.S. servers or for any connection originating from U.S. IP addresses, and judges are barred from prescribing particular blocking techniques. Providers can contest orders and courts must consider “technical feasibility and efficacy,” but European precedents - French and Spanish orders - show courts have enforced VPN blocking despite no-log claims. Digital-rights groups have objected, rights holders have been quiet, Issa will retire at the end of the year, and parallel site-blocking bills are being developed in Congress.