Leahy pressures Visa, MasterCard to ban piracy sites

A top Senate Democrat wants Visa and MasterCard to block payments to sites that spread illegal movies, TV shows and other files on the Internet.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is sending letters to executives at the two credit card companies on Tuesday asking them to write new policies banning sites that host stolen content online.

{mosads}“Online copyright infringement remains a serious problem for America’s artists and creators,” wrote Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“These illegitimate enterprises, many of which operate abroad but target American Internet users, profit from the hard work of our nation’s creators and undermine the diverse lawful, innovative services that are flourishing online.”

The call follows a report on the Web’s major “cyberlockers,” which offer stolen videos and music. The websites make millions of dollars through premium accounts, advertisements and other income sources. 

All but one of the websites surveyed in that Digital Citizens Alliance report earlier this year allowed people to pay for premium accounts using their Visa or MasterCard cards.

Not only does that money help prop up the websites, Leahy warned, but the mere presence of their logos also “lends the sites a harmful imprimatur of legitimacy.”

Both companies have policies prohibiting their cards from being used for illegal activities, but Leahy asked them to step up the effort against the piracy websites. Additionally, he asked them to work together on a set of voluntary agreements to better address online copyright infringement.

PayPal, another major online payment company, made the decision to ban cyberlocker sites two years ago by instituting new policies specifically forbidding deals with companies that offer infringing materials.