Another ally joins the war against online pirates
The battle against online piracy has been fought on many fronts, and today came news that another had opened with the announcement that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and Donuts, a the largest registrar for the new domain extensions have come to an agreement to thwart online piracy. The development is good news for creators of every stripe.
The agreement outlines ‘best practices’ in dealing with sites reported as being “large-scale” pirate operations:
Under the terms of the agreement, the MPAA will be treated as a “Trusted Notifier” for the purpose of reporting large-scale pirate websites that are registered in a domain extension operated by Donuts. The agreement imposes strict standards for suchreferrals, including that they be accompanied by clear evidence of pervasive copyright infringement and a representation that the MPAA has first attempted to contact the registrar and hosting provider for resolution.The agreement specifies that Donuts will work with registrar partners to contact the website operator and seek additional evidence. If Donuts or its registrar partner determines that the website is engaged in illegal activity and thereby violates Donuts’ Acceptable Use and Anti-Abuse Policy, then they, in their discretion, may act within their already established authority to put the infringing domain on hold or suspend it.
Please be aware that if we receive a complete DMCA claim concerning content on an account you host, and you do not act quickly to resolve the issue, it might be necessary for us to disable access to your hosting account to remain in compliance with the DMCA.
Unfortunately, we can’t suspend your customers’ individual hosting accounts. To comply with DMCA, our only option is to suspend the entire Reseller Hosting account, including all of the customers’ accounts it supports.
This is a groundbreaking partnership and one we’re proud to undertake. Donuts, as the operator of .MOVIE, .THEATER, .COMPANY and almost 200 other domain extensionsis committed to a healthy domain name environment and this is another step toward a safe and secure namespace.