Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act gets thumbs up?

You never quite realize how similar the Internet is to the "old west" until you realize how few laws there are to ensure proper morals are followed when publishing data.  TorrentFreak has posted an interesting news story that talks about how the US government is working to pass legislation that will enable them to control access to certain web domains that are breaking copyright law.

The U.S. Senate's Judicial Committee unanimously passed the controversial 'Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act' today, a bill that could be used to crack down on many BitTorrent sites and other file-sharing platforms. The bill would give the Department of Justice the unprecedented power to take over domain names of websites that are deemed to facilitate copyright infringement.

As a website owner this does concern me, not because I am doing something wrong but rather because "other" competing site owners could use this new law to their advantage and have innocent sites taken down.  While this is likely farfetched the simple act of posting a link and small description of a news article could be considered an infraction.

There are some positives such as a proper course of action to have Wikileaks taken down or sites like whitehouse.com that prey on grandmothers looking for the latest report on missile systems in China who instead find questionable photos of girls in compromising positions.  (or at least that is what "used" to be on that website )

Related Web URL: http://torrentfreak.com/senate-passes-bill-to-quas...