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MPAA: Censorship Good For Consumers, Will Help Innovation

Posted by: , 18:31 AEST, Wed May 16, 2012

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The MPAA posts in a controversial blog gloating about recent court successes against The Pirate Bay, saying that censorship is good for consumers and encourage innovation
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Image/Photo Credit: swanksalot @ Flickr, CC

The MPAA has welcomed recent court decisions around Europe that have seen orders to censor the BitTorrent indexer website, The Pirate Bay. 

Writing on their official blog, the MPAA welcome rulings in the Netherlands, UK, Austria, Belgium, Denmark and Finland, and says that censorship helps "not only the creative community but also consumers".

This suggestion will no doubt incense Internet Freedom activists, who say that censorship of The Pirate Bay and other websites are not only heavy handed, but also ineffective at stopping visitors to these websites.

But the MPAA says such blocks are needed to promote innovation, to allow more legitimate sites to "provide consumers with content when they want it". Critics also attacked this point, saying that the MPAA's history on innovation (having been against VCRs at one point, and with members believing nothing good has ever come out of the Internet) nullifies their argument, and if anything, websites like The Pirate Bay have been instrumental in forcing Hollywood to start offering competitive products and services for the Internet age.

Lastly, the MPAA warned that more actions are needed and that "it is imperative that the content not be siphoned off and distributed illegally by those seeking to profit from the work and creativity of others", another contentious point considering The Pirate Bay claims they've been running at a loss, and that the users of the website are not paid to upload or download content.


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