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Technology analyst Scott Steinberg fields a viewer question on the latest approach to curbing online piracy: "Internet service providers policing pirates: What is Hollywood smoking? And does anyone really think that this will work?" Not really, suggests Steinberg. Enforcement would be costly and cumbersome, and probably not at all effective.
Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, AT&T and Time Warner Cable have promised to be more proactive in alerting possible copyright violators using their networks in a voluntary agreement with the music and film industries. The antipiracy model they’ve adopted has been pushed for some time by the Recording Industry Association of America and Motion Picture Association of America.
Last year, as part of a broad enforcement campaign, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began seizing the domain names of websites involved in copyright infringement and the sale of counterfeit goods. ICE, a division of DHS, carried out the first phase of Operation In Our Sites in June 2010 when it seized the domain names of nine websites allegedly offering pirated movies.
Microsoft has taken legal action against 63 online auctioneers spanning 12 countries for alleged trademark infringement and the international orchestration of marketing schemes involving the sale of counterfeit software. In addition to seven civil cases being filed in the UK, other countries included the United States, Germany, France, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia and others.
MySpace, MTV Networks and online ad platform Auditude are teaming up to try and squeeze money out of pirated video — content distributed online without the permission of the rights holder. The trio’s plan is to identify online pirated video clips, slap an ad overlay on top of them, and monetize their use, returning a portion of the proceeds back to the copyright holders.