The MPAA almost had a censorship battle with some Internet giants

Internet companies like Facebook, Google, Tumblr, Twitter, and Yahoo almost ended up in a standoff with the MPAA after the organization tried to use a lawsuit to force them to block services and remove links to a bunch of websites that operate under the MovieTube flag. The companies weren’t having any of that, however, and explained to the court that such a move would be opening the door to some dangerous Internet censorship. Fortunately, the MPAA chose to remove the censorship requirement from its lawsuit rather than fight. 

Last month the MPAA sued several popular movie streaming websites which all operated under the MovieTube flag. As part of the lawsuit the major movie studios asked for a preliminary injunction ordering several third-party companies to stop linking or providing services to the sites. For several tech companies this request went too far. Last week Google, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Yahoo explained to the court that it could result in broad Internet censorship, similar to the blocking provisions that were listed in the controversial SOPA bill. The filing appeared to be the start of a new standoff between Hollywood and the tech companies, but a letter submitted by the MPAA yesterday puts it on hold. The MPAA informed the court that a preliminary injunction is no longer required as the MovieTube sites have been offline for several weeks already. “Plaintiffs are no longer seeking preliminary injunctive relief at this time but will seek permanent relief as soon as possible,” the MPAA’s lawyers write. The decision to drop the request may very well have been triggered by the Amici Curiae brief of the tech companies. After all, the MovieTube sites were already offline when the MPAA submitted the injunction request weeks ago.