I wanna play hardball too!

Earlier this week the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry got all medieval on a bunch of students in Taiwan who were swapping MP3s (egads, no!). The Motion Picture Association of America is obviously feeling needy after seeing

Earlier this week the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry got all medieval on a bunch of students in Taiwan who were swapping MP3s (egads, no!). The Motion Picture Association of America is obviously feeling needy after seeing someone else get some press for such stone-age tactics, so now it's started busting Gnutella users for swapping movies.

The MPAA has actually been pursuing Gnutella users for about a month, using an Internet investigative firm to snoop out who's swapping what over the peer-to-peer network. This labour intensive task that has resulted in hundreds of letters being sent out to ISPs warning them that their users are engaging in illegal activity under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The ISPs have in turn contact users with warning letters basically asking them to cease and desist their illegal activities within 24 hours or have their connection cut off.

Now the ISPs are claiming that they all have very strict procedures for actions such as this, requiring conclusive evidence from the wronged agency - in this case the MPAA - before they take action. What is worrying is that the MPAA is not a law enforcement body, yet it is asking ISPs to do just that on its behalf; and the ISPs are letting them get away with it, because no one likes a lawsuit, and so file-swappers are getting letters, and they'll stop, not because what they are doing is illegal, but because no one wants to lose their Internet access.

Remember all the giggles that everyone had at Microsoft's expense during the DoJ anti-trust case, about Bill Gates wonderful 'All we want is the freedom to innovate' speeches? Well the MPAA has a similar catch-phrase, and one just as laughable, on its Web site: Copyright: The engine of America's economic growth.
The Motion Picture Association of America