YNOT EUROPE – Unanimously with 19 votes, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bipartisan bill that is sure to create outrage in the community on the web.

The Combating Counterfeits and Online Infringement Act (COICA), if signed into law, will authorize the U.S. Department of Justice to pursue civil complaints against sites accused of copyright infringement. Under the proposed law, the U.S. government could remove the sites of suspected content pirates from the web forever.

Even the U.S. electronic community is up in arms, as it fears the internet will become censored in America as it is in China and Iran. The difference under the proposed law is that pirate sites would be completely removed from the internet by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and would not appear anywhere in the world ever again. In China, Iran and some other censorial countries, the sites are removed only from that country’s network.

Of even more concern: The U.S. law seeks authority to pursue and lock out sites operating in other countries.

Although the mainstream entertainment industry largely has applauded the news, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and other open-network advocates are strongly opposed to the bill. They fear the law will be abused and wreak havoc on sites that have not engaged in copyright infringement. The potential also exists that such a law could fragment the entire domain name system, the advocates claim.