As part of their commitment to transparent and open government, the Obama Transition Team is posting the lobbying agendas of the groups it meets with for public review and comment. One of the more interesting documents to be found there is the Motion Picture Association of America’s “international trade” agenda.
Some of the MPAA’s agenda is reasonable, such as cracking down on commercial optical disc piracy. But much of it, if adopted, would result in a substantially less free and safe internet, at little or no actual benefit to the artists and workers the MPAA claims to represent.
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Here, the MPAA is advocating for a number of things, the most problematic of which is a “three strikes” internet termination policy. This would require ISPs to terminate customers’ internet accounts upon a rights-holder’s repeat allegation of copyright ingfringement. This could be done potentially without any due process or judicial review. A three-strikes policy was recently adopted by legislation in France, where all ISPs are now banned from providing blacklisted citizens with internet access for up to one year.
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[T]he MPAA would like the US government to pressure foreign governments to adopt the same harmful measures. This is made explicit by a look at, for instance, the International Intellectual Property Association’s 2008 one-sheets on Canada and Spain: The MPAA wants these governments to institute mandatory internet filtering and three-strikes laws.
Given how the Interwebitubes has become integral to the world, I wonder if we implemented this against another country it could be considered an act of war. Greedy lunacy!
