Facebook's Zuckerberg Thinks Aggressively Violating Net Neutrality Is Fine...If You Just Mean Well

MPAA Strategized On How To 'Tell The Positive Side' Of Internet Censorship

from the incredible dept

Mon, Apr 20th 2015 11:33am — Mike Masnick

Back in December, when the Sony emails first leaked, we wrote a detailed post about the bizarre views of the MPAA on site blocking, in that it was absolutely obsessed with putting site blocking in place while admitting it didn't understand the technical issues. That was based on the reporting done by some reporters who had seen a few of the emails. Now that Wikileaks has released the entire trove, we can discover some more details, like the fact that part of the MPAA's plan was to figure out how to create pro-censorship propaganda. It really is incredible, but that's a bulletpoint in an email from the MPAA's top lawyer, Steven Fabrizio, about part of the strategy at a "site blocking confab" the major studios held last fall:

Outreach to academics, think tanks and other third parties to foster the publication of research papers, white papers and other articles that tell the positive story of site blocking: e.g., it is commonplace around the world and working smoothly; it has not broken the internet; it is not incompatible with DNSSEC; it is effective; legitimate sites/content have not been blocked; etc.

Think about that for a second. The MPAA, which likes to declare itself one of the foremost defenders of free speech, was literally conspiring on how to create propaganda in favor of censorship, pointing to countries that already censor the web as "good examples" to follow. You'd think they would have learned from the time Bono tried to use China's censorship as an example of how to deal with copyright infringement what a ridiculous idea this is.

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Filed Under: censorship, mpaa, positive side, propaganda, site blocking
Companies: mpaa

22 Comments

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Violynne (profile), 20 Apr 2015 @ 10:12am

...it is commonplace around the world and working smoothly...
It's too bad Fabrizio wasn't in a country with this so-called "working" system.

This ridiculous statement would have never made it off his computer.
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- Anonymous Coward, 21 Apr 2015 @ 3:10am
  
  Re:
  And for a few good reasons -
  - he wouldn't be allowed to use one,
  - he wouldn't be a lawyer (no need, really),
  - all the IP is the property of government anyway.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2015 @ 11:44am

If you guys hate Hollywood so much, why are you so addicted to their content?
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- Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2015 @ 11:50am
  
  Re:
  We don't like Hollywood because they seek too much control over things more important than they are, and don't care about the broader consequences. If you hate the Internet so much, why are you posting here?
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  - rapnel, 20 Apr 2015 @ 12:46pm
    
    Re: Re:
    ^ best answer so far (patiently waiting for "because cunts!")
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- Baron von Robber, 20 Apr 2015 @ 11:59am
  
  Re:
  Because they screw the creators of the content of their money.
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting
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- Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2015 @ 12:06pm
  
  Re:
  You say that like I regularly go watch movies, or watch "primetime" TV dramas.
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- Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2015 @ 12:33pm
  
  Re:
  I don't care for or consume Holywoods content, but what I do hate is that they trying to destroy the means whereby I can get the content that I want.
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- John Fenderson (profile), 20 Apr 2015 @ 12:37pm
  
  Re:
  I don't know, why do you make unfounded assumptions?
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- Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2015 @ 1:56pm
  
  Re:
  I'm not. The closest thing to Hollywood content I consume at the moment is from Toronto.
  
  BWAHAHA! I HAVE FOILED YOU AGAIN!
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- Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2015 @ 2:47pm
  
  Re:
  Does Mel Gibson's history of bigotry and domestic violence make him an unskilled director
  
  Does Bill Cosby being a serial rapist make him an unskilled comedian?
  
  Does Ty Cobb's "surly temperament, racism, and aggressive playing style" make him an unskilled baseball player?
  
  This is not a difficult concept to grasp unless you're a tard prone to black-and-white thinking.
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- Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2015 @ 6:35pm
  
  Re:
  If the MPAA hates Google so much, why are they so addicted to Google's content?
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- techflaws (profile), 20 Apr 2015 @ 10:17pm
  
  Re:
  If you shills are so unskilled and inept at what you're trying to do here, why are you still getting paid?
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- tqk (profile), 21 Apr 2015 @ 6:49am
  
  Re:
  I boycott, and am equally confused why others don't as well. Sadomasochism has gone mainstream in this century.
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AH2014 (profile), 20 Apr 2015 @ 12:07pm

Is domain blocking worthwhile
There is another pretty interesting document about domain blocking in the wikileaks trove. While it is challenging to explain how the internet works in simple terms, they still often just get it flat-out wrong.

Bonus for the silly statement about bitcoin being a failed internet currency.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2015 @ 12:13pm

You guys act like this is surprising.

In other news, the grass is green.
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- Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2015 @ 1:04pm
  
  Re:
  I'm surprised they're this blatant. It's not "the grass is green" situation, it's more "The diamond you bought is worth a couple million dollars." It's surprising it would be worth so much, likewise, the MPAA taking things this far is surprising.
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Jair, 20 Apr 2015 @ 12:14pm

I find this rather unsurprising, though still depressing, given that this and so many other bad things and ideas come from an industry whose entire profession is basically about playing the biggest and most elaborate children's game of pretend in existence in thousands of different ways and styles. Reality just doesn't seem to even exist there, only make believe. Which may actually explain a lot.
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DannyB (profile), 20 Apr 2015 @ 3:00pm

Tell the positive side
Tell the positive side of 'censorship'.
Tell the positive side of 'totalitarian regimes'.
Tell the positive side of 'disease'.
Tell the positive side of 'death'.

For censorship, you don't have to hear anything the censorer doesn't want you to year. (Is that actually good?)

For totalitarian regimes, the trains run on time. (If they are running.)

For disease, it increases commerce and profits of those who profit from diagnosing and treating disease.

For death, it reduces use of limited planetary resources for the rest of use.

A twisted Pollyanna can probably find an up side to just about anything. That doesn't mean the any of the above listed things are desirable.
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- Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2015 @ 4:12pm
  
  Re: Tell the positive side
  > For death, it reduces use of limited planetary resources for the rest of use.
  
  Some Life of Brian lyrics come to mind.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Apr 2015 @ 12:09pm

I bet they are behind the global warming conspiracy too
The older I get, the more I see, hear and read, the more I understand that absolutely everyone is biased and pandering to the highest bidder. Every research article published should be met with more than just a skeptical eye.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Apr 2015 @ 2:37pm

There is none.
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