Federal bill would force VPN providers, ISPs, and DNS services to block foreign piracy sites

What happened

Congress saw yet another anti-piracy bill introduced, H.R. In ACPA, a standard blocking order needs to be court-issued, but would apply in 14 to 30 days.

Blocking at the ISP and DNS level is relatively straightforward. It would require internet service providers, DNS resolving services, and virtual private networks, or VPNs, to block foreign websites or services hosting pirated content.

That gets complicated pretty quick when VPNs and content delivery networks (CDNs) are in play. The vast majority of users utilize their ISP's DNS, so not resolving a given domain if it's in the blocklist for its customers is simple enough.