RIAA Calls DMCA 'Antiquated,' Wants Piracy Filters Instead

The Recording Industry Association of America, more commonly known as the RIAA, is tired of the 'antiquated' process that is DMCA takedown requests. Both the RIAA and a total of 14 other groups have formally expressed their distaste for such takedowns, likening it to a game of whack-a-mole in which every request quickly results in a new listing for the same pirated content after the original is pulled. Instead, this collective wants to see ISPs filter out pirated content directly.

The collective includes SoundExchange, Global Music Rights, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the Nashville Songwriters Association International, and more. Together they've sent a letter to the U.S. Copyright Office painting a picture in which the Digital Millennium Copyright Act doesn't work, saying in part that it is 'extremely burdensome' and that it is 'ultimately ineffective.'

Instead, the collective is seeking a filtering solution that will prevent any particular copyrighted work from being uploaded again once a DMCA takedown request is received involving it. Or, alternatively, the letter states that a filter could be implemented that identifies copyrighted content from the start and stops it from being uploaded at all.

Groups like these have been attempting to squash piracy for years, and have thus far seen little success in doing so. ISPs have been wrangled into extensive piracy-targeting schemes in the past, most notably the Six Strikes system, which itself has been put out to pasture due to its ineffectiveness. It's doubtful we'll see any sort of filtering system like this go into effective given failed past efforts to implement similar systems.

SOURCE: Ars Technica