This is incredible.

On Thursday afternoon, TorrentFreak shared an email that the Motion Picture Association (MPA) has reportedly been sending to torrent site operators all around the world, threatening to “pursue all remedies possible” if they don’t shut down their sites within 24 hours after receiving the notice.

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TorrentFreak’s sources have informed them that the emails are being sent from Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) VP Jan van Voorn.

“Without prejudice to our contention that you are already well aware of the extensive infringements of copyright, this Notice fixes you with actual knowledge of facts and circumstances from which illegal activities, i.e. copyright infringements, are apparent,” van Voorn writes.

Torrent indexes, linking sites and hosting services have all been targeted, but it appears that only micromkv.com, a small linking site, has actually heeded the warning. After all, the MPA doesn’t provide any specific threats, just a general warning.

“This Notice requires you to immediately (within 24 hours) take effective measures to end and prevent further copyright infringement. All opportunities provided by the Website to download, stream or otherwise obtain access to the Entertainment Content should be disabled permanently,” van Voorn continues.

The MPA even goes so far as to draw attention to the fact that “any use of the artwork of the Entertainment Content (e.g. movie or TV show posters) (‘Artwork’) is prohibited without authorization of the rights holder.” Even the posters on torrent sites are infringing copyrights.

I can’t imagine a stern letter from the MPA being enough to shut down some of the most visited sites on the Internet, but we’ll wait and see how the recipients of the email respond.