It’s no secret that the MPAA are wanting to take stronger measures against piracy, but recent Sony leaks suggest they’re pushing to crack down even harder than they already are; they want to target the internet’s Domain Name System (DNS).
The plan was first proposed as part of SOPA a few years ago, but as many of you know, it failed to pass Congress after a lot of protesting and complaints. New information suggests that the MPAA’s lawyers have been looking for a way to use the tactic under existing law, allowing them to remove offending sites from DNS, effectively removing them from the internet phonebook and preventing people from finding the sites. Of course, the major issue here is, who defines what an infringing site is and will we just end up with a trimmed down internet that only shows sites deemed suitable for us.
“A takedown notice program, therefore, could threaten ISPs with potential secondary liability in the event that they do not cease connecting users to known infringing material through their own DNS servers,” the letter reads. “While not making it impossible for users to reach pirate sites (i.e., a user could still use a third-party DNS server), it could make it substantially more complicated for casual infringers to reach pirate sites if their ISPs decline to assist in the routing of communications to those sites.”
It’s a brute force tactic and one that would be very effective, but currently it’s also illegal to do so. Even current DMCA notices walk a fine line, as they’re often handed out broadly and without proper investigation. Worst case scenario is we end up with people using dodgy DNS servers, exposing themselves to severe security issues in the process.
SOPA may be dead, but those behind it are still trying to find ways of rebranding it and making it law.
