TF: MPAA Working with ICANN on Policies Targeting Pirate Sites

DOMAINSPACE—An interesting article posted today to TorrentFreak explores the extent to which the Motion Picture Association of America is an active participant with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in the development of policies that will make it "harder for pirate sites to register and keep their domains." The effort makes certain sense for the trade association following its failed bids in years past to get the United States Congress to pass far-reaching legislation such as SOPA, PIPA and COICA, which, as explained by opponent Electronic Frontier Foundation, "... would have a created a 'blacklist' of censored websites." Fast forward to the present, and ICANN is in the very process of rolling out many hundreds of new top-level domains, each one of them a potential hotbed of piracy. TF's Ernesto describes the inevitable result, observing, "As a member of several ICANN stakeholder groups, the lobby outfit is keeping a close eye on the movie industry’s interests. Most of these efforts are directed against pirate sites. For example, in ICANN’s most recent registrar agreements it’s clearly stated that domain names should not be used for copyright infringement." In a post last week on the MPAA website, Alex Deacon, senior vice president for internet technology wrote that the new agreements “contain new obligations for ICANN’s contract partners to promptly investigate and respond to use of domain names for illegal and abusive activities, including those related to IP infringement.” Ernesto observes that Deacon's post is "carefully worded" in an obvious effort to cast the trade group as reasonable, and not embarking on more SOPA campaigns, but remains convinced that the MPAA has a serious and comprehensive agenda in mind. "Thanks to internal documents that were made public in the Sony leak," he writes, "we know that the MPAA ideally wants to adopt 'procedures for broad-based termination of pirate sites.'" The leaked documents reveal that the MPAA is aware that such sweeping changes via ICANN are “unlikely,” but also that it remains steadfastly focused on “seeking to make policy changes through ICANN meetings." Until that happens, the MPAA is stuck trying to use "the existing agreements to convince registrars to take action against domain names that are used by 'pirate' sites," a voluntary approach that Ernesto notes has been met with abject failure in previous attempts. But as Deacon's post also makes clear, the MPAA remains committed to helping ICANN develop new policies for domain governance, including "the important topic of enhancing ICANN’s accountability."