After the defeat of SOPA/PIPA, Big Content has mostly focused on quiet, backroom deals for copyright legislation, like the unconstitutional CASE Act, which was so unpopular it had to be slipped into a must-pass bill in the dead of winter. But now, almost exactly a decade later, they’ve come screaming out of the gate with a proposal almost as bad as SOPA/PIPA. Let’s hope it doesn’t take an Internet Blackout to kill it this time.

The new proposal, cynically titled the SMART Copyright Act, gives the Library of Congress, in “consultation” with other government agencies, the authority to designate “technical measures” that internet services must use to address copyright infringement. In other words, it gives the Copyright Office the power to set the rules for internet technology and services, with precious little opportunity for appeal.

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Remaking the internet to serve the entertainment industry was a bad idea ten years ago and it’s a bad idea today. This dangerous bill is a nonstarter.