MPA, Taobao.com Reach Takedown Accord

Hollywood Studios have signed a memorandum of
understanding with Chinese online consumer-to consumer content distribution
online marketplace Taobao.com to promote the sale of legitimate content, and
weed out pirated or infringing content.

The
Motion Picture Association, which represents MPAA studios
internationally, said Friday it had reached a "common understanding"
with Taobao.com -- one of the 20 most visited Web sites in the world, according
to MPA -- about "the identification and removal of copies of MPA member
company content from Taobao.com's consumer-targeted e-commerce platform that
the members have identified as counterfeit or otherwise infringing."

Those
member companies include Paramount; Sony Pictures
Entertainment Inc.; Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Universal City
Studios LLC; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures; and Warner Bros.
Entertainment.

The
memorandum includes a take-down system for removing pirated or otherwise
infringing content, according to MPA Asia Pacific Managing Director Mike Ellis.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.