[Infowarrior] - Hollywood wants in on ISP "graduated responses, " too

[Richard Forno]

Hollywood wants in on ISP "graduated responses," too

By Nate Anderson | Published: December 24, 2008 - 08:50AM CT

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081224-movie-biz-wants-in-on-graduated-response-too.html

"Graduated response" isn't just for music; Ars has learned that the  
Motion Picture Association of America has been having similar  
discussions with US ISPs for some time and has already been involved  
in trial projects. The results of this limited testing have been  
encouraging to the movie business, as they show that most people do in  
fact stop sharing files illegally after receiving a simple warning  
from their Internet provider.

The recording industry made waves last week by announcing a set of  
voluntary agreements with American ISPs to pass warnings (and  
eventually sanctions) to users accused of sharing files illegally over  
P2P networks. The scheme is similar in concept to the recent deals in  
the UK and France, but such graduated response mechanisms are actually  
under consideration all over the world.

Many of the public pronouncements concerning these efforts have  
focused on music, something that has always led to a bit of curiosity  
here in the Orbiting HQ. If such a system is implemented, why would it  
apply only to a certain industry? Everything about the design of such  
systems suggest that they will actually function like a general  
copyright compliance engine that can run on the fuel provided by any  
industry dealing in digital work: movies, music, e-books, stock photos.

That impression was confirmed when Ars spoke to the MPAA's John  
Malcolm, an executive VP who oversees worldwide antipiracy operations  
for the industry. The movie business has been pursuing graduated  
response discussions for some time, though separately from the music  
industry. To the MPAA, graduated response looks like a nonpunitive  
approach for dealing with P2P—perfect, because the movie industry has  
no desire to adopt a "sue-'em-all" approach to dealing individual file- 
sharers.

Malcolm goes so far as to call the idea a "win/win/win" situation.  
Rightsholders win by gaining more control over illegal distribution of  
their content without lengthy court cases, a confrontational public  
stance, and the bad PR that comes from suing dead grandmothers and  
kids in housing projects. ISPs win by clamping down on the heaviest  
P2P users on their networks. And movie lovers win by... well, by not  
getting sued. (One can certainly see how a "Hey, knock it off" warning  
note might compare favorably with a "Hey, pay us $3,000 and we won't  
sue you" letter.)

Users might also be said to benefit by avoiding the implementation of  
widespread ISP content filtering, which for a while was being pushed  
quite strongly as a good solution to P2P problems. Malcolm won't rule  
out such filtering, though he says that "given current technologies"  
it appears to be a better choice for streaming video (from sites like  
YouTube, where it operates at the edges of the network) than for P2P.  
Adopting graduated response and letting the industry do all the  
identification should also avoid some of the regulatory problems that  
could crop up if ISPs instead started scanning and blocking content in  
realtime.

Unlike the music business, Hollywood has yet to make any public  
graduated response announcements, though discussions are well under  
way around the world. Malcolm insists that the MPAA wants to appeal to  
people's better natures and give them the benefit of the doubt before  
pursuing tough sanctions, but this approach depends on people changing  
behavior with just a warning.

One UK study showed that most file-swappers would stop after a simple  
notification, but such data has been limited. Malcolm admits that his  
industry doesn't have that much information to go on yet, but says  
that ISP trials do show people willing to make a change. He has been  
"very encouraged by the fact that there have not been many repeat  
infringers."

Given all the "three strikes" discussions that have taken place with  
ISPs around the world, it might be surprising that the movie business  
has generally been mentioned so little. Malcolm has a theory about  
that too; when an industry files tens of thousands of lawsuits, it  
tends to attract attention.

But behind the scenes, working with ISPs and governments, the movie  
business has a clear plan to implement graduated response on its  
terms. Coupled with the increased use of filtering technology (even  
sites like DailyMotion have signed on to filter long-form copyrighted  
clips) on user-generated content sites, lawsuits against sites that  
purposely host or link to illegal copies of movies, tougher camcording  
laws, and dogs that sniff for pirate DVDs, the MPAA wants to make its  
movies (much) harder to copy. It will never succeed completely, but  
making the speedbump even "bumpier" for casual downloaders would be a  
tremendous win for the industry.