"Memo of understanding" between RIAA, MPAA, & which ISP's?

By Ray Beckerman

July 10, 2011

Thank you to the great Bruce Gain [ http://www.pcworld.com/author/Bruce-Gain ], an excellent investigative tech writer who's covering this subject, for bringing this issue to my attention:

It appears that the RIAA and the MPAA have gotten together and created a collusive "Memorandum of understanding" [ http://beckermanlegal.com/pdf/?file=/Lawyer_Copyright_Internet_Law/RIAA_MPAA_ISP_Deal.pdf ] for ISP's to sign, which calls for the signing ISP's to assist the Big 4 record companies and the Big 6 motion picture companies in enforcing their copyrights, in ways never contemplated by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act [ http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html#512 ]

I haven't had time to analyze it yet (it's 36 pages), but at first glance it made me kind of ill, in that it appeared to...

-violate the antitrust laws of the federal government and of various states,
-constitute abuse of copyright,
-expand the lawful copyright monopoly into an unlawful monopoly,
-overlook the First Amendment,
-overlook the fair use defense and other defenses afforded by copyright law,
-conflict with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,
-be against public policy, and
-contradict net neutrality.

What I'm wondering about is which, if any, ISP's have signed off on this, because I'd want to do my utmost to avoid doing business with them. The document I've seen is unsigned but lists some ISP's. If your ISP is on that list, and does sign, I recommend switching ISP's asap.

What ever happened to "free enterprise"?

11:28:00 AM