TorrentFreak U.S. Lawmakers Work on Unified Site-Blocking Bill to Counter Online Piracy

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The Supreme Court’s decision to reverse the billion-dollar piracy liability verdict against Cox Communications is a major win for Internet service providers.

It confirms that they can’t be held liable for pirating activities of subscribers or customers unless they actively induce copyright infringement through specific acts, or if their service has no substantial non-infringing uses.

For rightsholders, however, the ruling represents a significant setback, as it makes it much harder to hold ISPs liable for pirating subscribers.

Or, as Justice Sotomayor noted in her concurring Supreme Court opinion, the majority’s decision “permits ISPs to sell an internet connection to every single infringer who wants one without fear of liability and without lifting a finger to prevent infringement.”

The ruling reshapes the liability landscape, giving new urgency to site-blocking efforts.

Internet providers have previously opposed such legislation over liability concerns. Have those concerns been resolved by the Supreme Court? And where do the U.S. site-blocking legislative efforts stand today?

A Bicameral, Bipartisan Site Blocking Push​

Last year, several new site-blocking proposals emerged in Congress. In January 2025, Lofgren had filed her Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act (FADPA) in the House. A few months later, Senator Tillis announced a draft of the Block BEARD Act, with bipartisan support from Senators Chris Coons, Marsha Blackburn, and Adam Schiff.

At the time, the House and Senate efforts were not coordinated. That has changed.

TorrentFreak has learned that, over the past months, Senator Tillis and Representative Lofgren have been working on a draft that would combine their separate site-blocking proposals into a single piece of legislation.

The unified approach marks a significant shift from the fragmented approach of the past year.

No draft text has been circulated publicly, and sources could not provide a specific timeline for introduction beyond noting it would need to happen before Tillis’s term ends in January 2027.

One possibility mentioned by sources is that the legislation could be attached to an omnibus spending bill. For now, however, that remains speculative.

Targeting ISPs and DNS Resolvers​

While detailed specifics on the bill will have to wait until a draft is circulating, it is expected that the legislation will require both ISPs and large DNS providers to block foreign pirate sites.

This is in line with Lofgren’s original FADPA bill, which specifically included DNS resolvers with more than $100 million in annual revenue. Tillis’s Block BEARD act does not mention DNS resolvers, but uses the Section 512(k)(1)(A) DMCA service provider definition, which is wide enough to capture them.

The inclusion of DNS resolvers is significant, as it brings tech companies such as Google and Cloudflare into the mix. Targeting DNS resolvers is relatively novel internationally, as most site-blocking regimes do not explicitly include DNS providers.

We reached out to Google and Cloudflare, requesting comment, but they did not reply before publication. However, these companies have appealed similar blocking requests elsewhere, including in France, so they likely have reservations.

Notably, last year the Internet Infrastructure Coalition (I2Coalition), which represents major tech companies including Amazon, Cloudflare, and Google, launched its DNS at Risk campaign, warning the public about such DNS blocking threats.

Support and Opposition​

Rightsholder groups including the RIAA, MPA, and Creative Future have supported the site-blocking efforts, while consumer advocates have raised concerns. However, the public discourse has been relatively quiet compared to the SOPA debates in 2012.

Times have changed and site blocking is much more common today than it was back then. That said, discussions, support, and critique will likely pick up when the legislation moves forward.

It is notable, however, that Representative Lofgren’s leading role is a shift from her position during the SOPA debates. At the time, she was among the fiercest opponents of SOPA in 2012, warning that blocking threatened the open internet.

Lofgren believes that her FADPA proposal is a “smart, targeted approach” that is mindful of due process, and respects free speech while using a narrow and targeted blocking approach.

Rep. Issa’s Wild Card​

Running parallel to the Tillis-Lofgren effort is a separate proposal from Representative Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet.

Issa’s American Copyright Protection Act (ACPA) has been circulated in draft form for a while but has not been formally introduced. The bill takes a different procedural path. Rather than relying on standard district court jurisdiction, ACPA proposes that the Judicial Conference of the United States maintain a roster of designated judges to hear all piracy blocking cases.

Whether the Tillis-Lofgren framework and Issa’s separate effort will eventually converge remains unclear. Sources indicate that, in earlier stages, these were two separate, uncoordinated tracks.

Issa’s proposal also includes DNS resolvers. At the same time, it also addresses overblocking concerns directly. If a third party’s site is blocked due to an error caused by the copyright owner, the third party could request up to $250,000 in compensation from the rightsholder.

The Timeline​

At the time of writing, the introduction timeline for the bicameral bill is unknown. However, Senator Tillis is not running for reelection. That gives him until January 2027 to advance the legislation and also creates a hard deadline.

Whether the bill surfaces as standalone legislation, gets attached to an omnibus spending package, or eventually blends with Issa’s separate ACPA proposal has yet to be seen. But it’s clear that, behind the scenes, lawmakers are still working on getting it ready.

With the Cox decision reshaping the legal landscape, site-blocking efforts have gained new urgency for both ISPs, DNS providers, and rightsholders.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

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