Anti-Piracy Website Blocking Won't Break Internet, ITIF Report Says

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation pushed back against oft-repeated claims that anti-piracy efforts like the failed 2012 Stop Online Piracy Act would “break the internet,” saying in a report there's little evidence to substantiate such claims. ITIF said Monday its analysis of five years of data from 25 countries found there were no “dire outcomes” from those countries' efforts to block piracy websites. ITIF referenced an April Carnegie Mellon University study saying the U.K.'s blockage of 53 piracy websites in 2014 caused a 90 percent reduction in visits to piracy websites and a rise in visits to websites legally featuring content.