MPAA planning site to offer legit movie links

By Jacqui Cheng

The Motion Picture Association of America has tried any number of tactics to fight piracy, but its latest scheme might actually prove useful to movie consumers on the Internet. The group is supposedly working on a new website that will offer information on how to find legit sources of movies so that users won't have to resort to copyright infringement.

The site, which does not yet have a name, would allow users to search for film titles, and in return it would provide links to places to buy movie tickets, to locations where searchers could buy or rent a DVD, or to sites where they can buy or rent a download from an online source. All of the major movie studios are behind the initiative, an anonymous movie studio source told Variety, and all legit "partners" would be linked on the site. Assuming this information is accurate, it could include links to Fandango, Movietickets.com, Amazon, Netflix, iTunes, Xbox Live Video, Hulu, and more. The site will be not-for-profit (except, of course, that it will be pointing to a million places that sell/rent movies for profit).

The rationale for the venture was allegedly provided by research from the studios that found that many users have a hard time differentiating between legal and illegal content online. While some of us may scoff at such an assumption—it's not exactly difficult for tech-savvy users to know the difference between downloading a movie from iTunes versus BitTorrent—such a confusion does sometimes come up among your average Joes and Janes. Just casually chatting with several of my own family members shows that they haven't the foggiest idea of where to start looking for legal music and video content outside of "the Google," which has sometimes in the past pointed them directly to not-so-legit content. Having a one-stop shop could definitely help in this case, especially if it doesn't discriminate between various online stores and merely provides a comprehensive listing for each film. Hell, throw in a column to list the price and even I would use it.

An MPAA spokesperson declined to comment on the website, but said that the organization is always looking for new ways to help users find legal alternatives. Of course, most of the MPAA's past efforts to "help users" have not exactly revolved around making things easier for anyone; they have instead included legal attacks on P2P sites, pushing for Internet filtering on college campuses, trying to stop DVRs from recording movies, and paying $15,000 for the private e-mail addresses of TorrentSpy users. But, if this initiative turns out being as simple and straightforward as it sounds, and if it gains enough popularity to be widely used, then it could actually offer something of value to consumers.

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