The Motion Picture Association of America once again attempted to pin me with the charge of “Unauthorized Distribution of Copyrighted Motion Pictures.” Some of you may remember they tried this once before back in April 2001. This time around, they reference my Video page as the offending page and claimed that I was “unlawfully offering product.” This is simply not true, as I was only linking to a supplier who offers Song of the South in its original, PAL format release, and who then supplies the purchaser with a complimentary conversion copy. This was quite clearly stated on my Video page.

However, on July 8, I received a notice from my web host that my account had been suspended because of this incident. So, not wishing to sabotage my entire web site (and countless hours of work and research), I have complied with the MPAA’s wishes and removed the offending page. Both the MPAA and my web host have been informed of the compliance, so hopefully this will be the end of that.

If you’d like to see the email sent to me by the MPAA, I’ve archived it here.

I received an email from the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) on April 5, charging me with “unauthorized distribution of copyrighted motion pictures” and ordering the immediate shut down of my web site by contacting my web service provider. Fortunately, I am still here but I greatly resent the way in which this event has been handled by the MPAA. I have contacted them both by email and phone and have not received a reply from them.

They were wrong in charging me with unauthorized distribution of copyrighted motion pictures: the plain fact is I have never engaged in such a thing and their failure to properly research and recognize my video ordering page as merely a click-thru link to another site’s service is the cause of this unfortunate error.

To read the email that was sent to me from the MPAA, click here.