Leading Internet technology companies, including Google, eBay, and Twitter are taking the lead to block a bill in Congress that Hollywood studios say would turn down the foreign websites selling pirated movies and other media. Looking at the increasing losses to Hollywood studios due to presence of Internet sites selling pirated movies, Senate Judiciary Committee passed a version of the bill in June, and the House Judiciary Committee will hear testimony Wednesday on its version.

This might actually prove harmful for Internet technology companies, including giants like Google and eBay, and this is the reason that nine tech companies sent a letter two days back to congressional leaders. This bill included legislation that would “expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities.” If the bill gets passed, this will block access to websites carrying pirated material, and would compel them to block domain names and search results having those sites. Moreover, this may also shut down all those sites.

This step taken by Hollywood studios is supported by a number of companies, labor unions, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Some of the supporting companies include Twentieth Century Fox Film, Comcast Corp., Walt Disney Co. and Sony Corp. Besides, this has created a wave of hostility between these Silicon Valley companies and the movie studios.

“What we are concerned about is that this is more of an attempt to change the laws that apply to tech companies and give the studios new private rights of action to sue,” said Markham Erickson, executive director of NetCoalition, a group of mostly tech companies fighting the proposal, including Google, Facebook and Bloomberg LP.

This is a really tricky situation for both parties. While the tech companies are putting their best efforts to block the bill, on the flip side, legislation might overrule parts of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which protects websites like YouTube or Facebook from lawsuits if they act in good faith to remove copyrighted material posted by users. All we need to do is to wait and see what decision will be given and in whose favor. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed!

For a visually appealing take-down of the “Stop Online Piracy Act” here’s an infographic from AmericanCensorship.org for you to chew on while you still have access to foreign websites: