Senator who opposes antipiracy bill under pressure?

Since the legislation was introduced very late in the prior congressional session, Wyden's opposition forced supporters to wait until Congress reconvened. Now that Congress is back to work, Leahy has said he will again try to get COICA passed. The bill already has the backing of the major Hollywood film studios and record labels, but a mostly new group of supporters sent a letter today to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, praising him for past antipiracy efforts and asking for his support in getting COICA passed.

Among the companies that signed the letter, Nike, one of Oregon's largest and most influential companies, was at the top of the list. A little lower was Adidas, another large company with operations in Oregon.

"We encourage you to work with your colleagues in the Administration and the Congress toward enactment of the principles central to ... the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act."
--COICA supporters

Maybe it was a coincidence that Nike was so conspicuous, but either way, COICA backers are sending a message that the bill has heavyweight support. In addition to Nike, some of the other companies or groups that signed the letter included Viacom, NBC Universal, the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, Voltage Pictures (makers of the Oscar-winning film "The Hurt Locker"), Chanel, Burberry Limited, and Major League Baseball.

Copyright owners appear to really want COICA and for good reason. They have battled illegal file sharing for years with little success. They have argued that Internet piracy harms the U.S. economy and kills jobs here. While the studies done on the economic impacts caused by illegal file sharing were questioned by the Government Accountability Office last year, there is some growing support that entertainment companies are ailing. Music sales are down, and last week Sony Corp. announced it will shut down a CD-manufacturing plant in Pitman, N.J. About 300 people will be laid off. Sony once operated three CD-making operations in the United States. It now has one.

COICA would give the government sweeping power to shut down domain names belonging to U.S.-based pirate sites as well as the authority to order Internet service providers to cut off access to similar sites overseas.

The Department of Justice would also have the authority to order credit card companies to stop processing transactions from suspected Web sites and order online advertising services, such as Google, to boot the sites off their ad networks and sever financial ties. One of the underlying themes of COICA is to choke off money-making abilities of pirate sites.

Opponents say the legislation is censorship.