A mounting threat to the entertainment industry

Passed last year, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has been a tremendous boon to the entertainment industry in the fight against piracy, Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) President Jack Valenti and a handful of other industry leaders told a congressional subcommittee. But while the DMCA is helping copyright holders fight piracy, the explosion of sophisticated, Internet-based music and motion picture bootleggers poses a mounting threat to the US entertainment industry, they contended. "Our ramparts are being breached on all sides," Valenti said, contending that the widespread implementation of broadband Internet connectivity coupled with the increasing sophistication of digital recording devices is opening the door to a groundswell of motion picture piracy. Hosted by the House Commerce Committee_s Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection, today_s hearing was held to gauge the impact of the DMCA one year after its passage. DMCA outlined a handful of legal remedies for copyright violations. One of the areas on which the MPAA is focusing continued scrutiny is the availability of WHOIS data. Maintained by Network Solutions Inc., the WHOIS database contains a comprehensive list of all domain names registered in the popular ".com" domain and includes contact information for domain name holders. While the MPAA and the public at large already has access to that data, the MPAA wants to assure that the contact information is accurate and wants Network Solutions and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to takeaway domain names held by individuals who do not provide accurate contact information. "The DMCA will not work as Congress intended it unless there is access to WHOIS," Valenti said. The MPAA is working with ICANN - the not-for-profit firm charged with managing the domain name system - and Network Solutions to address its concerns surrounding WHOIS. The MPAA is not seeking legislative action on WHOIS at this time, an MPAA spokesperson told Newsbytes.