U.S. Bill Would Force Major VPNs to Block Piracy Sites

Last Updated on September 24, 2026 by Scottie Brockenshire

A new bill in the U.S. House of Representatives would let courts order large VPN providers to block foreign piracy sites, a change that could affect how millions of Americans use a VPN. The American Copyright Protection Act, introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa on September 16, 2026, names VPNs alongside broadband providers and DNS resolvers as companies that would have to enforce court-ordered blocklists.

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What Happened

Issa filed the bill as H.R. 10364. The full text went up on Congress.gov on September 22, and it goes further than an earlier discussion draft from last year, which covered only internet service providers and DNS resolvers. The final version adds virtual private networks to the list of covered “service providers”, while keeping root nameservers and top level domain registries out.

The bill sets up a fast-track process. A copyright holder asks a federal court to declare a site a “foreign piracy site”, using a “preponderance of the evidence” standard. With that declaration, the holder can seek a blocking order that forces named providers to stop users in the United States from reaching the site. Providers with at least 100,000 monthly U.S. users or subscribers fall under the rule, and they get 14 to 30 days to take “all commercially reasonable steps” to comply. Courts can shorten that window for time-sensitive events, such as live sports or a movie that leaks within 24 hours of its U.S. release.

The bill does not say how a block should work, and a judge cannot require a specific method. A VPN could block a site on its U.S. servers only, or it could block it for anyone connecting from an American IP address. Providers can contest their inclusion, and the court has to weigh factors such as the technical feasibility of the block. Issa has argued for speed, asking at a June hearing whether enforcement could happen “at the speed of sound” or “at the speed of light”. He retires at the end of this year, and a competing bill from Sen. Thom Tillis and Rep. Zoe Lofgren is also in the works.

Key Facts

Bill: the American Copyright Protection Act, numbered H.R. 10364.
Introduced: by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on September 16, 2026; full text posted on Congress.gov on September 22.
Covered providers: broadband internet access services, DNS resolvers, and VPNs. Root nameservers and domain registries are excluded.
Size threshold: at least 100,000 monthly users or subscribers in the United States.
Evidence standard: a court can label a site a “foreign piracy site” on a “preponderance of the evidence”.
Compliance window: 14 to 30 days, which a court can shorten for time-sensitive events.
Sponsor timeline: Issa is retiring at the end of the year.
Industry view: Laura Tyrylyte, a privacy advocate at NordVPN, told TechRadar that blocking mainly hits paid VPN providers, while free VPNs stay largely untouched.

What It Means

The practical effect depends on choices the bill leaves open. If a provider blocks a site only on its U.S. servers, a subscriber could still reach it through a server in another country. If the provider blocks it for every connection from a U.S. IP address, the restriction travels with the user. Bigger brands with U.S. operations would face the most pressure, and a company's legal home could matter, since U.S. courts cannot easily enforce orders against providers based in privacy-friendly jurisdictions. Similar rules already exist in Europe, where courts in France and Spain have ordered VPN blocking. An analysis by Re:Create found that innocent sites in Italy stayed blocked for an average of 320 days, while more than 500,000 sites were wrongly blocked during Spanish LaLiga matches. Public Knowledge and Re:Create say the U.S. process is one-sided.

Related Guide

For a look at how VPN blocking orders already play out in practice, see our report on how Canal+ won 14 blocking orders naming three VPNs.

Source: TorrentFreak, with bill text via Congress.gov and additional context from Ars Technica and TechRadar.

Note: A VPN can protect your privacy and help you reach content you already pay for. Site-blocking laws and each service's Terms of Service still apply, so check your local rules before relying on any workaround.