Thread: MPAA/RIAA Lobbied Extensively In Favor of Domain Seizures

The recent action by US authorities against so-called rogue websites comes on the heels of significant lobbying efforts by two well known anti-piracy groups. In the last quarter the MPAA and RIAA together spent a total of xxx on lobby efforts in Washington. Public records reveal that the industry groups focused heavily on legislation and authorities involved in domain name seizures.

In recent months the topic of domain name seizures has been reported heavily in the news and discussed widely. US authorities took down dozens of ‘copyright infringing’ domains and the ‘Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act’ (COICA) was drafted to make such takedowns even easier in the future.
Both the recent domain name seizures and the proposed COICA bill were encouraged by the MPAA and RIAA. However, the role of the RIAA and MPAA has not been limited to passively applauding the actions of the Government. On the contrary, both groups lobbied extensively for more Government control over domain names.
A look at public filings reveal that the outfits spent more that $1.8 million in the third quarter of 2010 on lobbying efforts directly targeted at the COICA bill and the authorities that carried out the recent domain name seizures. Money, that as it stands now, was well spent.
The RIAA’s filings at the Office of the Clerk reveal that the music industry trade group invested the most, $1.29 million in total. This money was spent on a variety of subjects, including the COICA bill and ACTA. In total, the RIAA listed nine copyright/trademark lobbyists including its CEO Mitch Bainwol.
The MPAA on its turn spent $520,000 on lobbying efforts in the third quarter. Part of the money went to lobbying efforts at the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the authorities that were responsible for the recent domain seizures.
In addition, the MPAA lobbied for three-strikes anti-piracy initiatives such as ‘graduated response’ and legislation that targets digital piracy on ‘rogue sites’ such as COICA. The MPAA lists three lobbyists including Michael O’Leary who previously served as counsel to the former Senator Joe Biden.
Indeed, the same Joe Biden who is now the Vice President and declared war on digital piracy earlier this year. “Piracy Is Theft, Clean and Simple,” Biden said at the time.
Although it is no secret that the MPAA and RIAA spend millions of dollars in Washington every year, it is worth looking into where that money goes. From public filings it becomes apparent that the US Government’s move to commercial censorship is also reflected in the lobbying efforts by the entertainment industry.
And that’s just part of the influence. Aside from trying to influence lawmakers and the authorities, both groups are also playing their role in law enforcement. As we reported last Friday, the MPAA helped out Homeland Security with the application for the seizure order of Torrent-Finder and other sites.
It is of course impossible to measure if any of the lobbying efforts did indeed have an effect on the increased anti-piracy actions by the US Government, but considering the money that the MPAA and RIAA spent on lobbying, it wouldn’t come as a total surprise.

Source :: http://torrentfreak.com/mpaariaa-lob...izures-101219/

Its funny the US government wants to try to put their noses everywhere that it doesn't belong . Lol they can't even keep their nose clean and they exspect everyone in the US to keep ours clean . :P But truthfully if Prices wasn't so high for dvds or at the theaters for poorly thought out Movies pirating would go down . Personally that is why i get the movies from torrents .
1. make sure its a movie that i would enjoy
2. If i enjoyed the movie at which case i will and don't mind buying.

If the movie industry would make more quality movies and not make the trailors look good for a terrible movie it would bring the prirating down alot.

@ t3xtornado wrote :

If the movie industry would make more quality movies and not make the trailors look good for a terrible movie it would bring the prirating down alot.

^ +1 to that, the only crime being committed here is the crap hollywoods dishing up that they wan't people to actually pay money for.

But ' batten down the hatches' boys the bad guys are a coming !!!!

US has always played a different ball game where by they try to force governments in following their orders or they make sure that legislations are passed so that heavy export restrictions are placed on those countries which default.

Originally Posted by x264addict

US has always played a different ball game where by they try to force governments in following their orders or they make sure that legislations are passed so that heavy export restrictions are placed on those countries which default.

I agreed with this person ^ but they are people so are we... it is stupid when it come to money so i feel like we're in situation that companies are scrooge and we're poor people cuz RIAA/MPAA should need to stop overprices and waste lot of money on useless lawyers, taking regular ppl to court where they cannot afford, don't know what to say especially they know how to win in the court and earn their hardworking money but RIAA/MPAA need to make their own music career but they duplicate products smh... if they promote stuff like on news, blogs, etc... about piracy then that's how lot of ppl hear about it and wouldn't give a crap what RIAA/MPAA gonna do. it's like don't look back but they do anyways so it's ruined... so the only thing you can stop piracy is world ends... but it is impossible to stop piracy... it already been like that since '80 or '90...

Originally Posted by x264addict

US has always played a different ball game where by they try to force governments in following their orders or they make sure that legislations are passed so that heavy export restrictions are placed on those countries which default.

Truly saying, that doesn't matter at all. One have to remember that not all the torrent sites are hosted in USA or any part of the world controlled by USA. For example look at demonoid or IPT, their present steps.. No-one can ever close any torrent site by these rules if the admins of that particular site want to run that tracker.. And this is the fact.

The us & other flourishing countries r going to stop anyone i mean anyone who goes against what they r doing . I got 5 bones u have nunn u can't eat u can't grow.