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Berners-Lee, creator of the world-wide web. He described the way it would allow the government to switch off sites.

“In these cases, no due process of law protects people before they are disconnected or their sites are blocked. Given the many ways the Web is crucial to our lives and our work, disconnection is a form of deprivation of liberty. Looking back to the Magna Carta, we should perhaps now affirm: ‘No person or organisation shall be deprived of the ability to connect to others without due process of law and the presumption of innocence’.”

The law was stopped by Senator Ron Wyden. Dubbed the “Internet censorship bill”, Wyden said it was like using a “cluster bomb” when a precision missile strike was called for. The US needed open channels around the world to foster economic growth. He understood and opposed copyright infringement, but the bill trampled on free speech, and gave licence to foreign governments to censor the internet. Growth and opportunity for the US, according to Wyden, lay with opposing the legislation. He said:

“I don’t believe it accidental that most of the innovation in the digital economy comes from the United States. We made important policy choices as the Internet began to take off. We ensured that it wouldn’t be taxed and that there would be the appropriate balance between enabling free speech online and also providing the necessary tools to combat online piracy and protect national security.”

Like a Hollywood movie monster, although apparently killed off, COICA came back to life. This time it had a different name — and like all good sequels, introduced new characters. In came the proposed Protect IP Act (PIPA), care of Senator Leahy, and Stop Online Piracy Act, from Senator Lamar Smith, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The proposed PIPA law — like COICA before it — attacked the domain name registry system underpinning the internet. It was focused abroad, but isolated websites by allowing court orders to be gained, ordering search engines not to list sites, payment providers not to carry transactions, advertising services and ISPs to refuse any dealings. It had the effect of scrubbing websites from existence — with expensive court battles the only defence.

The proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) had similar

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