MPAA Targets ISPs

Hollywood demands Internet service providers fight piracy.

Who should police online illegal file sharing of movies? If the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has its way, it'll be job of Internet service providers (ISPs). The MPAA, an organization that represents such studios as Sony Entertainment and Universal Studios, has sent out more than 100,000 legal notices -- cease and desist letters -- to ISPs such as Speakeasy, ordering them to contact persons unlawfully downloading films. "The fear is the Internet provides a worldwide capability to disseminate product stolen from our member companies," said Ken Jacobsen, senior vice president of worldwide anti-piracy efforts for MPAA. "It's instantaneous, it's digital, it can be very high quality, and it's very difficult to address because it covers the entire world."

Soldier in anti-piracy war?

But the MPAA's tactic of sending out legal notices is bullying, says Michael Wells, Speakeasy's music and video-on-demand manager. "In their tone and in their general attitude toward organizations and individuals that they think are a threat to them, they've taken a very aggressive -- I think it's fair to say bullying -- approach," Wells said of the MPAA. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, ISPs are required to contact users suspected of infringement. But the MPAA wants to push ISPs to police their servers and comb for illegal files that might exist. "My understanding is that these cease and desist letters that are being sent out are not being sent out targeting specific material, but instead are being sent out in general," said Marc Greenberg, director of the Intellectual Property Law Program at Golden Gate University. "[They're] saying, 'You might have something on your site, so stop broadcasting it and go and find it.'" And that isn't the job of an ISP, Wells says. "I don't think that ISPs should be without some responsibility, but I think to whatever extent the MPAA would like to shift that burden entirely over to the ISP, I don't think that's appropriate either," Wells said.

Preventing another Napster

Fearing a piracy explosion like the one that rocked the music industry, the MPAA says this is a way to educate users on what's OK to download. "I don't see a difference between someone walking into a video store or a record store and actually stealing a hard copy of a song or a movie and going onto the Internet and stealing a digital product," Jacobsen said. "They are in fact the same product at the end of the day." But Wells says he isn't convinced the orders are enough. "The MPAA can't rely on sending these notices as their main strategy for stemming the tide of illegal file sharing," he said.