Feds Hesitant To Be Hollywood's Enforcers

from the so-much-for-that-plan dept

While it’s not entirely clear why Hollywood needs the FBI to help it fight its personal battles against business model obsolescence by going after file sharers, last year the Department of Justice decided it was worth declaring war on file sharers. Of course, there’s just one problem. It turns out that they’re fairly reluctant to actually do anything about it. It seems that US Attorneys are a bit worried about the PR nightmare that would come from trying to put some kid in jail for listening to his or her favorite tunes — which, of course, explains why the MPAA wanted the FBI to do its dirty work in the first place. They know that it’s a publicity nightmare to sue your customers — so they thought it would look better if the FBI did the job for them. Maybe the MPAA should team up with the RIAA, who, last we checked, was building up their own paramilitary force to go after downloaders by scaring them into thinking that the RIAA’s enforcement wing were actual cops.


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