PROTECT IP Act would cost taxpayers $47 million, private sector much more

[nsane.forums]

The Congressional Budget Office has released a new estimate of the cost of the PROTECT IP Act, the controversial legislation to force private ISPs, search engines, and other parties to censor websites accused of facilitating copyright infringement. Based on personnel estimates supplied by the Obama administration, the CBO estimates that the enforcement activities of PROTECT IP will cost taxpayers about $10 million per year.

The bulk of the money would be spent on hiring staff. The Justice Department would need additional agents to "commence legal actions against individuals who operate or register an Internet site dedicated to activities infringing on copyrights of others," the CBO says. "DOJ anticipates that it would need to hire 22 special agents and 26 support staff to execute its new investigative responsibilities under the bill."

The price tag for bringing on those new workers? $47 million over five years, or just under $10 million per year. Of course, this is just a rough estimate. The actual costs will be controlled by future Congressional appropriations and the enforcement priorities of the administration.

An extra $10 million in spending is a drop in the bucket in a federal budget that now exceeds $3 trillion. But the estimate comes with two important caveats. First, the personnel requirements were estimated by the Obama administration, which may have an incentive to downplay the bill's costs in order to speed its passage. So it's possible that the government would devote significantly more resources to enforcement once the legislation was enacted.

The bigger concern is that the estimate doesn't include potential costs to the private sector. The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act requires the CBO to estimate whether proposed legislation will cost the private sector more than $142 million. The CBO says it can't do that in this case because of "uncertainty about how often and against whom the Department of Justice or copyright holders would use the authority" provided by the legislation.

We've never had the kind of large-scale Internet censorship infrastructure mandated by the PROTECT IP Act, so it's hard to predict how much it would cost private ISPs, search engines, and credit card networks to comply. But maintaining, updating, and enforcing blacklists could be expensive, and these costs would be multiplied across hundreds, if not thousands, of private firms.

Further reading

• "CBO Says PROTECT IP Will Cost Taxpayers Over $10 Million Per Year To Censor The Internet" (techdirt.com)

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[Ambrocious]

Doesn't this news just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside??? *SARCASM*

[DKT27]

Anti-Piracy Bill Set To Cost Taxpayers $47m To 2016

PROTECT IP, the U.S. government's legislation to target individuals and domains connected with allegations of copyright infringement, is set to cost millions of dollars to enforce. According to a Congressional Budget Office estimate, PROTECT IP – which is designed to benefit US-based entertainment companies – will cost the taxpayer a cool $47m between 2012 and 2016.

The Protect IP Act (an acronym for Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property) is a bill introduced earlier this year aimed at combating online copyright infringement.

PROTECT IP will target and censor so-called "rogue websites", online sites and services (especially overseas) which U.S. authorities say facilitate infringement of local intellectual property rights. The bill also imposes new anti-piracy requirements on ISPs, payment processors and advertisers. Search engines also have duties to perform, such as deleting links to outlawed sites.

The MPAA is a big supporter of the legislation and firmly believes that its implementation will lead to an increase in its members' revenues. However, for those not in the entertainment business the legislation, which is currently on hold following intervention by Senator Ron Wyden, will come at a financial cost.

According to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate released this week, between 2012 and 2016 PROTECT IP will cost the U.S. taxpayer tens of millions of dollars.

"Based on information from the Department of Justice (DOJ), CBO estimates that implementing [PROTECT IP] would cost $47 million over the 2012-2016 period, assuming appropriation of the necessary funds," the report states.

In order to enforce the legislation, the Department of Justice says it will need an additional 22 special agents and 26 support staff.

"Once fully phased in, CBO estimates the costs of the additional employees under the bill would reach about $10 million annually, including salaries, benefits, training, equipment, and support costs," says the CBO.

The report notes that there will be an "impact on the private sector", particularly for the above-mentioned Internet service providers, credit card companies, online advertisers and search engines who have direct or indirect business with "rogue sites". The legislation intends to outlaw this business but the costs of that are unclear.

"Because of uncertainty about how often and against whom the Department of Justice or copyright holders would use the authority to prohibit the actions outlined in the bill, CBO cannot determine the cost of the mandate to the private sector," the report concludes.

By its very nature, leading search engine Google will be affected by the new legislation. Recently executive chairman Eric Schmidt spoke out against PROTECT IP-style censorship during the company's Big Tent conference in London, saying that the company would fight demands to carry out web blocking.

In addition to the 90 law professors who are opposing the legislation, Demand Progress is running a campaign urging Congress to reject the Act.

Oppose the Internet Blacklist Bill

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