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MPAA Urges Obama to Embrace Internet Filtering

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

The Motion Picture Association of America is urging the incoming Obama administration to adapt internet filtering technology to block illicit file sharing of motion pictures and television shows.

The Hollywood studio lobbying organization, in a position paper posted on Obama's transition website -- change.gov -- writes that a top priority is "the fight against online piracy, including through automated detection and removal of infringing content." The group said it was "imperative to curb the theft of online content."

The paper, (.pdf) posted this week, comes as the incoming 44th president will be charged with nominating the nation's first copyright czaras part of legislation lawmakers approved months ago. The position paper marks the first time the motion picture lobby has publicly confirmed it was pressing the incoming administration to adapt its filtering vision, and it comes shortly after the Federal Communications Commission openly embraced internet filtering.

Toward that goal, the MPAA openly requested filtering information from technology companies. Eleven companies and a university responded, sharing their filtering visions and technology. The companies are: Advestigo, Audible Magic, Auditude, Gracenote, Intellivision, Magix/AudioID, NTT, Philips, Thomson, University of St. Andrew of Scotland, VidyaTel and Vobile, an MPAA spokeswoman said.

"We see filtering as a tool moving forward to detect copyrighted materials going through the pipes," spokeswoman Elizabeth Kaltman said in a telephone interview.

What about fair use?

"If I upload a copy to the internet, that's not a fair use issue. I'm trading infringing content. This is not a fair use argument," Kaltman said.

The industry and government claim billions of dollars in revenue and hundreds of thousands of jobsare lost to piracy.

Network-level filtering technology is already emerging. Google, for example, has adopteda copyright filtering system for its popular YouTube video sharing site. And internet service providers' willingnessto adopt filtering is well documented.

After all, many of these same telecommunication companies helped the Bush administration spy on Americans without warrants, and then convinced federal lawmakers, including Obama, to grant them immunity from being liable in court for that behavior.

See Also:

• U2 Manager Wants ISPs to Filter File Sharers; Threat Level Calls ...
• Google Unveils YouTube Copyright Filter to Mixed Reviews
• OpenDNS Launches Free Porn Filter
• TorrentSpy Founders Create Copyright Filtering Company
• Sen. Rockefeller Lets Slip the Spying Truth: Drift Nets To Be ...
• Former Prosecutor: ISP Content Filtering Might be a 'Five Year ...
• Communications Decency Act Tipping Under Cuomo Kid-Porn Accord ...

Full post as published by Threat Level on December 10, 2008 (boomark / email).