MPAA On Broadband, Net Neutrality: Regulation Good, Not Good

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) this week urged the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) “to make the protection of creative content online a core and guiding principle” of its new National Broadband Plan. But its view suggests it would support stronger regulation over the internet, an approach it has strongly opposed in other areas.

In a 30 October filing to the FCC, MPAA calls for more content regulation of the internet to prevent it from being a “wild, wild West,” in the name of “safety and security.”

They suggest that when making its plan, the Commission “cull from” the experiences of other countries that have government regulation, such as South Korea, where users can lose internet access for six months and websites and forums can be shut down for transmitting pirated content, and France, where government can impose sanctions (such as cutting off internet access) for repeated copyright violations.

Meanwhile, the MPAA has been strongly opposing regulation in a related area. In a 2008 speech [pdf], MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman said of internet neutrality: “If Washington had truth in labeling, we’d call this proposal by another name: Government regulation of the internet. Today MPAA and all of our studios are standing up in opposition to broad-based government regulation of the internet. We are opposing so-called “net neutrality” government action.”

The National Broadband Plan is intended to expand the use of high-speed internet access, which in turn would allow users the technical ability to access new and different forms of content. The content industry is seeking to ensure sufficient regulation to allow private-sector control over potentially copyright-infringing content on these new broadband networks. It has said increased broadband penetration could increase online piracy.

But the FCC simultaneously is drafting rules to ensure that internet service providers cannot discriminate against different kinds of traffic online, or “net neutrality.” Hollywood was in favour of net neutrality in the 1990s, according to Gigi Sohn of Public Knowledge, but has changed course recently out of concern it would weaken their ability to control their content and enforce copyrights.

In its new FCC filing, MPAA said “compelling content” has been a key driver of broadband adoption and “inadequate protection of creative content will impede rollout of new content offerings,” thus undermining the Commission’s plan for ubiquitous broadband for all Americans.

The MPAA filing was in response to a 17 September FCC workshop entitled “The Role of Content in the Broadband Ecosystem,” one in a series of workshops held by the FCC in the development of a national broadband plan, MPAA said.

The full MPAA filing is available here (pdf).

MPAA press release here (pdf).

Robinson Esalimba contributed to this report.