To combat copyright infringement, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), along with other large internet companies like Google, Amazon, AOL, eBay Facebook and Yahoo (Internet Association) have taken their fight against internet Piracy, such as bit torrent sites, to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Back in June the goverment issued a report for IP Enforcement and is looking to develop a best practices in IP enforcement policy. With that announcement came a request by the USPTO for comment on the Voluntary Best Practices implemented to to reduce online piracy. That comment period ran until yesterday.
To reduce the pandemia of online piracy, the MPAA has been relying on voluntary agreements with Internet Service Providers under a “six strikes plan. However, the Internet Association is resisting the MPAA’s anti-piracy efforts. In order for them to be more cooperative, the studios suggested that the U.S. government needs to enact tighter copyright legislation.
The Internet Association is asking the USPTO to set aside the voluntary initiatives and develop a start-from-scratch approach saying the USPTO should take a broader look at the issues of piracy and infringement and look at the potential cause of piracy. The Internet Association is urging the USPTO to look at reduction in access to pirated clips as a measure of of its efforts.
While it is unclear what will come of the discussions, one thing is clear is that a lot of attention is being paid towards curbing online copyright piracy and counterfeiting by bit torrents sites.