Here's an interesting question. When the regulators seek to banparticular websites for alleged piracy, do they risk gifting thosenaughty entities valuable publicity?
The question is triggered by the Motion Picture Association'sdecision to attempt to shut down Newzbin2, an alleged piracy portalwebsite, using the UK's Copyright, Design and Patents Act. In anapparently unprecedented move, The MPA, trade body for the studios,is trying to get British Telecom to deny users access to the site.
Momentum Pictures is particularly concerned about illegalversions of a certain Oscar winner. "The survival of our businessdepends on the revenues we receive for our content," said aspokesman. "Our film, The King's Speech, is available on theNewzbin2 website without our consent. Neither we nor the film-makers receive anything for this."
Representatives of the Hollywood studios argued in court that theproblem of illegal file-sharing was "a very significant socialevil".
British Teleco, in turn, argued strongly against the MPA's case.The Internet Service Provider's brief said "claimants would seekorders blocking access to websites alleged to contain defamatoryallegations or private and confidential information".
Let's get back to our original question. A million George VI fanswill, upon hearing of the suit, surely make their way straight tothe accused website.
No comments:
Post a Comment