Courts can order internet providers to block foreign piracy websites.
S. 5529 — DEFEND IP Act · Filed by Thom Tillis (R-NC) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 24, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill lets copyright owners ask federal courts to block foreign websites. The court can order internet providers and DNS services to stop access. Foreign website owners get 20 days to fight the block. Internet providers must follow the court order. They cannot be sued if they block the wrong site.
Who it affects
Internet providers must block websites a court names. People in the U.S. lose access to those foreign websites. Foreign website owners can try to fight in court within 20 days.
One thing to notice
Internet providers cannot be sued even if they block a site by mistake. The foreign website owner may not know about the court case in time.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 2 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Sep 24, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 24, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- copyright — The legal right to own and control a creative work like a song or movie.
- piracy — Stealing and sharing copyrighted movies, music, books, or software without permission.
- DNS services — Services that help people find websites by translating web addresses into computer numbers.
- federal courts — Courts run by the U.S. government that handle cases about federal laws.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (22,491 characters) on Oct 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Courts can order internet providers to block foreign piracy websites.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5529/simple Report an error
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