Project Goliath: Inside Hollywood's secret war against Google
SOPA was just the beginning
210
What is "Goliath" and why are Hollywood’s most powerful lawyers working to kill it?
In dozens of recently leaked emails from the Sony hack, lawyers from the MPAA and six major studios talk about "Goliath" as their most powerful and politically relevant adversary in the fight against online piracy. They speak of "the problems created by Goliath," and worry "what Goliath could do if it went on the attack." Together they mount a multi-year effort to "respond to / rebut Goliath’s public advocacy" and "amplify negative Goliath news." And while it’s hard to say for sure, significant evidence suggests that the studio efforts may be directed against Google.
At the beginning of this year, the MPAA and six studios — Universal, Sony, Fox, Paramount, Warner Bros., and Disney — joined together to begin a new campaign against piracy on the web. A January 25th email lays out a series of legally and technically ambitious new tools, including new measures that would block infringing sites from reaching customers of many major ISPs. Documents reviewed by The Verge detail the beginning of a new plan to attack piracy after the federal SOPA efforts failed by working with state attorneys general and major ISPs like Comcast to expand court power over the way data is served. If successful, the result would fundamentally alter the open nature of the internet.
This is the January 25th email from MPAA Global General Counsel Steven Fabrizio, laying out the group's Goliath strategy:
More from The Verge
- Facebook moderators break their NDAs to expose desperate working conditions
- They welcomed a robot into their family, now they’re mourning its death
- Facebook’s Calibra is a secret weapon for monetizing its new cryptocurrency
- Google is finally taking charge of the RCS rollout
- Revel’s mopeds are a fun ride around Brooklyn and Queens
- YouTuber Simone Giertz transformed a Tesla Model 3 into a pickup truck
- Google pledges $1 billion to ease the Silicon Valley housing crisis it helped create