For quite some time now we’ve been talking about why the CASE Act, which sets up a special copyright “court” with lower barriers to entry for copyright holders, is such a bad idea. There are all sorts of problems with it, starting with the fact that we already have a massive copyright trolling problem, and the CASE Act is deliberately designed to make it worse. While supporters like to pretend that the CASE Act is the equivalent of a “small claims” court, it actually can lead to damages awards up to $30,000, which is way higher than a standard small claims court.

That said, as with so many copyright bills before it, Congress ignores all the problems associated with the CASE Act, because a bunch of vested interests pretend that there’s some real problems solved by this law. So, once again, the bill has moved forward, this time with the House passing the bill out of the Judiciary Committee, meaning that it can go to a full vote on the floor. The end result here would be really dangerous for free speech online, but no one in Congress seems to care about it. Yet.

EFF is asking people to contact their elected officials in Congress to let them know that theyshould not massively expand copyright in this manner, which will only lead to that much more extortion and shakedowns, while creating even more chilling effects for free expression online.

House Joins The Senate In Moving Forward On Plan To Massively Increase Copyright Trolling

More Law-Related Stories From Techdirt:

California Senate Passes Statewide Ban On Facial Recognition Tech Use By Law Enforcement

Appeals Court Refuses To Grant Immunity To Sheriff Who Engaged In Extortion To Go After A Whistleblower

Monster Energy Opposes Teenager’s Trademark Application Over Logos Not At All Similar