EXCLUSIVE: My Chat with Rep. Darrell Issa, New Hollywood Friend
The congressman's anti-piracy fight, a 'judicial blocking' proposal, has Amazon, Disney and YouTube execs talking. Plus: his words on Trump & fire relief

As much as Hollywood would love to sue people who’ve stopped setting foot in movie theaters, or share passwords for streaming services, there’s only one existential threat to the business that’s an actual crime: Piracy.
It’s such a dire concern that studios and other industry stakeholders are open to solutions from any quarter, especially since the consumer safety and IP-protection issues involved cut across party lines. Which is why, at a roundtable meeting Friday morning at Los Angeles’ Millennium Biltmore, U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R) was able to convene a number of top Hollywood and tech players to discuss the challenge of foreign digital piracy and the potential remedy of “site blocking” — i.e. preventing access to certain URLs or online resources. (It’s a move Issa’s camp has rebranded as “judicial blocking” to eliminate the whiff of censorship).
The roundtable was off the record, but among those present were execs from Amazon, Disney, Paramount, Verizon, Google, YouTube and the Consumer Technology Association. “It really went well, because there was a level of consensus on most of the issues by virtually everybody,” Issa, 71, told me after the meeting wrapped, speaking exclusively to The Ankler. “There are solutions around the world, and we need to find one that works for the United States.”
Streaming has made it easier for people to steal content, and pirates have increasingly gone overseas to avert U.S. law enforcement. As of 2022, piracy costs the U.S. economy $29.2 billion annually and threatens hundreds of thousands of jobs in the entertainment industry as a result. In October 2024, one foreign piracy site outranked both Peacock and Disney+ in total site visits. Last July, Lisa Knapp, the MPA’s top pirate cop, referred to AI as a “gamechanger” — and not in a good way — in an interview with Richard Rushfield. “People who operate global piracy rings … are sophisticated and nimble and are ‘stream-ripping’ content with extraordinary speed and quality,” she said.
Issa, who represents California’s 48th district (covering East County, San Diego and the Temecula Valley), chairs the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, which counts curbing piracy as one of its chief objectives, along with AI and other threats to copyright. On Friday he reintroduced the American Fairness in Music Act, a bipartisan bill backed by the Recording Academy that would require radio stations to pay artists for playing their music.
Issa’s piracy plan focuses specifically on foreign sites, which account for a majority of offenses. While site blocking is legal in the U.S., it’s largely restricted due to First Amendment protections. Countries including the U.K., Singapore and Canada have laws in place that allow for more expedited site-blocking orders. Issa’s strategy is not to detain and prosecute individual foreign offenders — nearly impossible — but rather to put a similar legal infrastructure in place to cut off their access to distribution and revenue, while also protecting entities like internet service providers from liability for complying with judicial blocking orders. “The remedies against U.S. bad actors have been good for a long time,” he told me. “We’re not trying to create a new mechanism here because it’s already working.”

U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D) of California’s 18th district (which encompasses Silicon Valley) also recently introduced a bill called the Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act that would institute similar regulations and, she has said, “does not disrupt the free internet except for the infringers.” The MPA, SAG-AFTRA and other trade groups have backed Lofgren’s bill, with statements nodding to Issa’s efforts on the issue, which go back more than a decade. Issa’s measure, which will be termed the American Copyright Protection Act, has yet to be written, but he hopes his Friday meeting will lay the groundwork for what his camp terms an “unprecedented” solution. “Because there are competing bills now,” he told me, “it also created the sense of not if, but when and which,” adding energy both to the roundtable and the mission overall.
Following the roundtable and before he headed to Altadena with other members of Congress (including Lofgren) to survey damage from the Eaton Fire, Issa laid out his thoughts on the issue and his proposed solution, plus his hopes for Southern California’s fire recovery and the stakes for the entertainment industry. He also made a pretty funny actor joke and told me what he’s watching on Netflix (if you’re guessing The Night Agent, you’re way off).
In this interview, you’ll learn:
How judicial blocking would actually work to restrict piracy
The unique challenge created by piracy of sports and live events, and how solving it could funnel billions more in revenue to team owners and broadcasters
How Issa’s proposal would strengthen government interaction with ISPs (internet service providers)
Why countries outside the U.S. actually have more tools to combat piracy
How the fight is building, starting with efforts to decrease profit margins for pirates
Issa’s thoughts on how L.A. handled the Palisades and Eaton Fires
How he expects President Trump to respond to California’s needs after the wildfires