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MPAA and RIAA Want Border Patrol and Homeland Security to Help Fight Piracy

by Terrence O'Brien on April 16, 2010 at 05:20 PM

We're accustomed to overstatement and morally questionable tactics from the MPAA and RIAA. Remember, these are the crews that sued a single mom for $1.9 million over 24 illegally downloaded songs, wanted anti-virus companies to start scanning for pirated media and called file sharers a bunch of drug-dealing Al Qaeda operatives. But nothing they've done before could possibly approach the level of arrogance found in a joint letter the groups recently sent to the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator's office (IPEC).

The MPAA and the RIAA have filed a joint request with the IPEC, outlining how the government can help them to both protect their intellectual property and punish file sharers. Among other things, the groups suggest outfitting consumer PCs with what amounts to spyware that scans for pirated music and films, reports illegal content and then automatically deletes it. The groups are also asking that personal media devices be searched at border crossings for illegal content and that the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Justice establish task forces to protect the industry's summer blockbusters.

Sit and think about that for a minute. The MPAA and RIAA are essentially arguing that preventing an early leak of 'Iron Man 2' is as important as preventing a bomb plot against the New York City subway system. They want the DHS, which was created to combat terrorism and respond to national emergencies, to protect 'Sex and the City 2.' They also think it is a perfectly legitimate waste use of our border patrol officers' time to look through your iPod.

The MPAA and RIAA have never seemed particularly concerned with sympathy, but the request of DHS resources is downright offensive to us -- not just as consumers, but as tax paying citizens. Read the entire letter here in PDF form. [From: EFF, via: GeekOSystem]

Tags: copyright, DepartmentOfHomelandSecurity, DepartmentOfJustice, filesharing, film, government, ipec, movies, mpaa, piracy, privacy, riaa, top

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