MPAA, Radix Strike Antipiracy Pact

Radix, an offshore domain name registry, has struck a deal with the Motion Picture Association of America to help crack down on piracy of TV and movie content.

Radix says it will treat MPAA as a "trusted notifier" when the association informs it of "large-scale" pirate sites registered with Radix extensions, which include .store, .press, .tech, .online, .site and .website.

It is the first such agreement MPAA has struck with a registry based outside of the U.S.

Radix has agreed to work with its registry "partners" to contact website operators and get additional evidence. Then, if they determine the site is engaging in illegal activity, i.e. delivering pirated content, they can "in their discretion" suspend the site.

MPAA made clear that it was a voluntary, "best practice" agreement and targeted at "blatantly illegal" conduct.

Steven Fabrizio, MPAA’s senior executive VP and global general counsel, said he hopes the agreement can become a "model to be used with other players in the domain name ecosystem and internet intermediaries.”

The agreement is similar to one struck in February with Donuts.

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.