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| DATE | 2014-12-20 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] DRM SOPA MPAA continuing advancement
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http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/12/7382287/project-goliath
Project Goliath: Inside Hollywood's secret war against Google
SOPA was just the beginning
By Russell Brandom
on December 12, 2014 12:59 pm
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What is "Goliath" and why are Hollywood’s most powerful lawyers
working to kill it?
In dozens of recently leaked emails from the Sony hack, lawyers from the
MPAA and six major studios talk about "Goliath" as their most powerful
and politically relevant adversary in the fight against online piracy.
They speak of "the problems created by Goliath," and worry "what Goliath
could do if it went on the attack." Together they mount a multi-year
effort to "respond to / rebut Goliath’s public advocacy" and
"amplify negative Goliath news." And while it’s hard to say for
sure, significant evidence suggests that the studio efforts may be
directed against Google.
At the beginning of this year, the MPAA and six studios — Universal,
Sony, Fox, Paramount, Warner Bros., and Disney — joined together to
begin a new campaign against piracy on the web. A January 25th email
lays out a series of legally and technically ambitious new tools,
including new measures that would block infringing sites from reaching
customers of many major ISPs. Documents reviewed by The Verge detail the
beginning of a new plan to attack piracy after the federal SOPA efforts
failed by working with state attorneys general and major ISPs like
Comcast to expand court power over the way data is served. If
successful, the result would fundamentally alter the open nature of the
internet.
mpaa goliath
"We start from the premise that site blocking is a means to an end,"
says MPAA general counsel Steven Fabrizio. "There may be other equally
effective measures ISPs can take, and that they might be more willing to
take voluntarily." According to the email, the group has retained its
own technical experts and is working with Comcast (which owns Universal)
to develop techniques for blocking or identifying illegally shared files
in transit.
That strategy also involves significant political risks. "In the
post-SOPA world, we need to consider the extent to which a strategy
presents a risk of a public relations backlash," Fabrizio continues,
"whether a strategy might invigorate and galvanize the anti-copyright
forces we saw in the SOPA debates." SOPA, also known as the Stop Online
Piracy Act, proposed ambitious new site-blocking measures in 2011, but
was ultimately defeated by coordinated outcry from web companies and
their users. The new emails suggest Hollywood hasn’t given up on the
idea. "We have been exploring theories under the All Writs Acts, which,
unlike DMCA 512(j), would allow us to obtain court orders requiring site
blocking without first having to sue and prove the target ISPs are
liable for copyright infringement," one email reads.
The only thing standing in their way? Goliath.
The MPAA’s venture is referred to over and over as "Project
Goliath," an effort to take Goliath down, with each studio contributing
funds towards a project that will benefit them all. One telling email
— titled "Goliath data summary" — comes with an attachment
titled "Search Engine Piracy Discussion (MPAA Discussion)," seeming to
suggest the codename is a stand-in for Google. A number of
Goliath-related emails also point to examples of copyright-infringing
search results found on Google; the persistence of file-sharing links in
Google search rankings has been a sore point in Hollywood for years.
""We start from the premise that site blocking is a means to an end.""
The emails reveal a multi-pronged approach to defeating Goliath. One
tactic is legal, convincing state prosecutors to take up the fight
against Goliath. After a series of meetings at the National Association
of Attorneys General in February, MPAA counsel Fabrizio writes, "Goliath
has told the AGs to pound sand…they pretty clearly told the AGs that
they aren’t going to do anything and essentially threatened the AGs
with the possibility of attacking them as they attacked folks in DC
during SOPA. The AGs did not like that." As a result, the counsels
report a growing coalition of attorneys general willing to take action
against Goliath, and the group budgeted $500,000 a year towards
providing legal support. Much of that budget went towards retaining the
prestigious law firm Jenner & Block, specifically Jenner partner and
former US Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli, who has billed
the group for as much as $40,000 a month.
In other emails, Google comes up as a specific target. After a dispute
over Google’s most recent anti-piracy measures in October, Fabrizio
suggested further action may be yet to come. "We believe Google is
overreacting — and dramatically so. Their reaction seems tactical
(or childish)," the email reads. "Following the issuance of the CID
[civil investigative demand] by [Mississippi attorney general Jim] Hood
(which may create yet another uproar by Google), we may be in a position
for more serious discussions with Google." A report from the previous
February suggests that the Goliath group drafted civil investigative
demands (similar to a subpoena) to be issued by the attorneys general.
"Some subset of AGs (3-5, but Hood alone if necessary) should move
toward issuing CIDs before mid-May," the email says. (Hood issued a CID
against Google in July concerning pharmaceutical counterfeiting, but he
does not appear to have issued any actions against the company since
Fabrizio’s letter in October.)
""We believe Google is overreacting — and dramatically so.""
The fight against Goliath also has an investigative side. Other emails
describe a proposed project called Keystone — budgeted at $70,000
— devoted to gathering enough evidence against Goliath to provoke
further action by the state attorneys general. "There is only so far we
can get with the AG’s unless we develop better evidence and
intelligence against Goliath," an email reads, "and that is the budget
for Keystone." The planning for the Goliath Project is laid out in
dozens of emails after the initial January meeting, although the emails
peter out after May for reasons that are still unclear. Still, budget
projections suggest that the group was prepared for a long battle. "To
take this through and have a reasonable chance of success, we probably
would need to continue through year two," one email reads.
In another instance, the group seemed to look to articles on political
corruption not as a cautionary tale but as an instruction manual. In one
email, the MPAA's Senior VP of State Government Affairs circulated an
investigative New York Times series on lobbyists wielding increasing
influence over state attorneys general. The series details many tactics
involved in Project Goliath, including hiring former attorneys general
as counsel and targeting officials at the state level where lobbying
dollars may stretch farther. The MPAA official offered only the caption
"FYI, first in a series of articles." The email was sent to 62 people,
including executives at Paramount, Warner Bros., Fox, Comcast, and the
RIAA.
""There is only so far we can get with the AG’s unless we develop
better evidence and intelligence against Goliath.""
Still, the emails reveal a remarkable hostility towards Goliath, and a
persistent desire to stop copyright infringing traffic as it moves
across the web, a position that puts it in stark conflict with many of
the guiding principles of the web. That, in turn, has created a serious
conflict with many of the companies that have grown powerful on the web,
a fight that, without an ambitious action like Project Goliath, the
industry seems primed to lose. As one counsel noted in March, "There is
much to commend an expanded Goliath strategy — the status quo has
not exactly been favorable for us and, absent our doing something, it
doesn’t promise to get better anytime soon."
As of press time, neither the MPAA nor Sony has responded to a request
for comment. Google declined to comment.
Additional reporting from Ross Miller and Bryan Bishop. Illustration by
Dylan Lathrop.
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