MPAA, RIAA and other groups: 'detect, monitor' consumers to crack down on online piracy

Seven entertainment industry groups recommended last month that federal officials crack down on music and movie piracy using technologies that would "detect, monitor (and filter) traffic" on infringing websites.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and five other organizations also suggested that network administrators should begin "bandwidth shaping and throttling" in an attempt to deter online copyright infringement, which the groups agreed has harmed the entertainment industry writ large over the past decade.

Their recommendations arrive by way of the White House's ongoing review of intellectual property laws, led by Victoria Espinel, the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator.

Part of the Obama administration's examination of existing copyright protections included a just-closed public comment period, during which groups like the MPAA and RIAA were able to offer their insight into how federal officials should best crack down on online piracy.

According to their joint filing, first parsed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), "Copyright theft undermines the sales, profitability and competitiveness of the U.S. economy and workforce, and has a significant adverse impact on the economy as a whole."

As a result, the groups recommend of "several technologies and methods that can be used by network administrators and providers..." to crack down on online piracy.

Some of those techniques involve "managing copyright infringement from the home (based on tools used to protect consumers from viruses and malware)." The groups also recommend technologies "to detect, monitor (and filter) traffic or specific files based on analysis of information such as protocols, file types, text description,
metadata, file size and other “external” information."

Still a third suggestion is that network administrators begin "Site blocking, redirection with automated warning systems/quarantine of repeat offending sites." And the filing weighs the possibility of "scanning infrastructure" for copyright theft havens.

While the groups do not explain how, exactly, they would accomplish such feats, they still stressed the "government should implement policies that encourage, rather than impede, investment and innovation in the area of technology solutions to infringement and counterfeiting."

But the rather aggressive suggestions those groups submitted to the "IP czar" last month have already earned them the scorn of a number of online privacy groups -- including EFF, which railed on the report in a blog post on Thursday.

"The joint comment filed by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and others stands as a sharp contrast, mapping out a vision of the future where Big Media priorities are woven deep into the Internet, law enforcement, and educational institutions," wrote Richard Esgurra, an EFF activist.

"Of course, these comments are just an entertainment industry wishlist, an exercise in asking for the moon," he continued. "But they reveal a great deal about the entertainment industry's vision of the 21st century: less privacy (with citizens actively participating in their own surveillance), a less-neutral Internet, and federal agents acting as paid muscle to protect profits of summer blockbusters."