Technical Experts Discuss Dangers of 'Collateral Damage' from Protect IP Act (PIPA)

A press briefing on the Protect IP Act (PIPA) was held yesterday in the EDUCAUSE Washington office.  A number of articles appeared in the press based on this briefing by Internet engineers.  Below are excerpts from one such article.

Engineers: PROTECT IP Act Would Break DNS

“Provisions in U.S. legislation designed to protect copyright online could break the Internet's Domain Name System by driving users to untrusted DNS services outside the U.S., a group of Internet engineers said Thursday.

The Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PROTECT IP Act), which awaits action in the U.S. Senate, would allow the U.S. Department of Justice to seek court orders requiring search engines and Internet service providers to stop sending traffic to websites accused of infringing copyright.”

Alternative DNS services could intercept Internet traffic and use customers' data "in any way the remote operator would like," said David Dagon, a post-doctoral researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology and co-author of a May paper focused on the technical problems that PROTECT IP could create.

The Internet engineers' press conference, organized by the Center for Democracy and Technology and other groups, came a day after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce organized a lobbying effort in support of the PROTECT IP Act.  Representatives of more than 30 companies told lawmakers the bill would make it more difficult for piracy and counterfeit-selling websites to market their products to U.S. residents.  The companies asked lawmakers to pass PROTECT IP in the Senate and introduce a similar bill in the House of Representatives.”

EDUCAUSE continues to monitor and report on this important legislation.