[Red Fortress]

Will all Abandonware sites be blocked?

For a couple years a bill has been raised in the US Senate, which would greatly increase the ability to the US government, as well as private corporations in removing access to sites on the internet.
Last year it was called COICA in its current incarnation its called the PROTECT IP Act, its contents are summed up in its wiki article:

Edited on 01/11/11: New Info on Laws!!!

The original bills COICA & PROTECT IP have been twice held up in the Senate by Senator Ron Wyden.

So, now its been raised in Congress after being rename "SOPA".

It's basically the same bill only with even more overbroad wording, plus they slipped in parts of the Streaming Criminalization Bill S.978

The whole point of this law is to block off access to all "Foreign Sites", which are beyond the reach of US Copyright Law.

They want mass IP Blocking + Search Result Censoring powers to use on offshore Websites by all US ISP & Search Providers.

Also the power to issue injunctions to US Payment Processing Companies (PayPal, etc...), to stop all money going to those sites.

Edit: 02/11/11
Apparently, websites that offer ways or tools to bypass blocks are also to be blocked off...

Websites in the USA are already vulnerable to being seized under current laws (see Operation In Our Sites).

However these new powers would also no doubt be used against domestic sites as well...

Old Info: Still Relevant to the held up Bills in the Senate.

The bill focuses on websites that have no significant use other than to facilitate copyright infringement, the hacking copyrighted works, or trademark counterfeiting; or are designed, operated, or marketed by their operator, and facts or circumstances suggest are used, primarily for counterfeiting, copyright infringement, or hacking copyrighted works. The bill does not alter existing substantive trademark or copyright law. It provides enhanced remedies against websites “dedicated to infringing acitivities” that are not registered in the U.S., and would give the United States Department of Justice the power to seek a court order against those websites. The bill requires the Attorney General to follow existing federal court procedures, including providing notice to the defendant. Once the court issue an order, it could then be served on financial transaction providers, Internet advertising services, Internet service providers, and information location tools to require them to stop financial transactions with the rogue site and stop linking to it. Some have described the bill as including a “blacklist” but that is inaccurate. Only a court order specifically addressing a particular domain name triggers the requirement to cut off activity with it(once multiple court orders are in effect a list will form). The term "information location tool" is borrowed from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and is understood to refer to search engines, but could cover other sites that link to content.

“ The Protect IP Act says that an "information location tool shall take technically feasible and reasonable measures, as expeditiously as possible, to remove or disable access to the Internet site associated with the domain name set forth in the order". In addition, it must delete all hyperlinks to the offending "Internet site". ”
At a technical level, nonauthoritative domain name servers would be ordered to take technically feasible and reasonable steps to prevent the domain name from resolving to the IP address of a website that have been found by the court to be “dedicated to infringing activities.” Although this would allow a website to remain accessible by numerical IP address, hyperlinks relying solely on the website’s domain name would not resolve. Also search engines—such as the already protesting Google—would be ordered to “(i) remove or disable access to the Internet site associated with the domain name set forth in the [court] order; or (ii) not serve a hypertext link to such Internet site.” Furthermore, trademark and copyright holders who have been harmed by the activities of a website dedicated to infringing activities themselves would be able to apply for a court injunction against the domain name to compel financial transaction providers and Internet advertising services to stop processing transactions to and placing ads on the website, but would not be able to obtain the domain name remedies available to the Attorney General.

This is the spolier Tag

The Entertainment Software Association stated on their website that they supports the bill: link

While the main attention is likely sites that host current gen games, ESA has stated on numerous occasion their negative opinion of Abandonware.

If they have an easy tool to block "infringing sites" from the US altogether, why not block Hotud & Abandonia while they're at it.

Edited on 02/11/11
This may turn out bigger then I thought...

Considering the "Shoot first, ask questions later" attitude of the Copyright Industry, they could well try to make Internet in the USA into their own private Intranet...