The Department of Justice has obtained seizure orders against a slew of commercial websites accused of selling a wide variety of counterfeit commodities, including DVD box sets, music, software, sports equipment and handbags-82 sites all told.

BT has been given 14 days to block access to a website accused of promoting illegal filesharing "on a grand scale" by Hollywood studios, in the first high court ruling of its kind under UK copyright law.

It would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement.

Sopa aims to stop online ad networks and payment processors from doing business with foreign websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement.

They would give copyright holders and the US government unprecedented abilities to summarily block and cut off funding for websites accused of violating copyright.

What PROTECT IP would do is authorize the feds to serve a court order on an ISP, demanding that it take action against a US based website accused of engaging in intellectual property theft.

Hollywood film studios won a landmark UK high court ruling on Thursday forcing BT to block access to an illegal file-sharing website accused of operating "on a grand scale".

As written, authorities and rights holders would be able to get court orders to force broadband providers, hosting companies, payment services and search engines to cut off websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement.

The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has convened a government-led working group, that comprised ISPs and search engines, to find a "plan B" to avoid potential litigation arising from the blocking of websites accused of illegal filesharing.

Last week Lib Dem and Conservatives peers added amendment 120A to the bill giving a high court judge the right to issue an injunction against a website accused of hosting a "substantial" amount of copyright infringing material, potentially forcing the entire site offline.