The MPAA and RIAA have submitted their policy recommendations to Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel. In a joint submission the groups explain that despite the broad availability of legal content, online piracy is still rampant. The groups say that services including The Pirate Bay, Rapidgator, Turbobit, DepositFiles and PutLocker are piracy havens, and they urge the U.S. Government to help them quash these sites.

The U.S. Government is constantly evaluating and updating its copyright enforcement policies. To this end, Copyright Czar Victoria Espinel recently asked “the public” to come up with recommendations for the future strategy.

The call resulted in dozens of submissions from individuals, entrepreneurs, digital rights groups and copyright holders. The RIAA and MPAA did not miss out on the opportunity either – they filed a joint recommendation last Friday.

More has to be done to combat online piracy according to the two groups, and the U.S. Government should play an active role in these efforts.

The Problem

After emphasizing that the public has a wealth of legal media at their fingertips, the MPAA and RIAA identify the biggest threats to the entertainment industry, starting with cyberlockers. They describe these file-hosting sites as “hubs for unauthorized distribution” and the “business model of choice for copyright thieves.”

“Operators encourage users to post infringing material or offer incentives to users whose uploaded content is frequently downloaded by others. In other words, unlike legitimate cloud storage services, these sites are focused, not on ‘storing’ files, but instead on illegitimately distributing professionally produced entertainment products,” they write.

The MPAA and RIAA haven’t shied away from naming several of these “rogue” sites which they equate to the now defunct MegaUpload.

“The efforts by the U.S. government to shut down Megaupload have had an immediate and positive impact on the marketplace. However, significant distribution of illegal content continues through similar websites, such as Rapidgator, Turbobit, DepositFiles, and PutLocker.”

The cyberlockers are immediately followed by P2P sites, of which The Pirate Bay is the prime example. The entertainment industry groups are quick to point out that this “criminal operation” continues to operate despite the fact that the previous owners were convicted.

“While its operators have been criminally adjudicated, The Pirate Bay (TPB) continues to be one of the top sites in the world providing access to unlicensed content. TPB and many other similar operators of p2p networks still enable users to illegally download complete copies of illegally copied movie, television and music content for free, while profiting from advertising, subscriptions or donations.”

In addition to these top threats the MPAA and RIAA also name linking websites (such as TVShack) and Usenet as facilitators of copyright infringement. They further point out that search engines and server farms are not doing enough to stop the above threats from continuing to operate.

The Solution

The MPAA and RIAA argue that the U.S. Government has an important role to play in countering the threats outlined above. One of the key solutions they list is the creation of “best practices” in industries that play a key role in the piracy problem.

The groups suggest that the Government should play a role in convincing advertising companies and search engines to work with copyright holders to decrease online piracy. In the most ideal scenario, advertisers should ban websites that facilitate copyright infringement while search engines should make it harder to find pirated content, or delist rogue sites altogether.

The Government should also encourage domain registrars to cooperate with copyright holders. The MPAA and RIAA want to eliminate fake Whois entries and are arguing for the implementation of strict identification guidelines so new top-level domains will not be used for piracy.

“The proliferation of new generic Top Level Domain registries risks offering new opportunities for pirates to evade detection and to escape the reach of U.S. courts and law enforcement; a strong set of anti-infringement best practices among the major registries and registrars could help to reduce this risk,” they write.

Despite the failed SOPA and PIPA bills the MPAA and RIAA also want the Government to continue their efforts to introduce stronger copyright legislation. Despite public protests, streaming copyrighted movies and music should become a felony, and harsher sentences should be introduced to deter piracy.

“For example, increasing sentencing guidelines for intellectual property offenses committed by organized criminals and repeat intellectual property offenders would help deter gangs and other criminals from incorporating infringement into their portfolios.”

“In addition, it remains important for Congress to clarify that, in appropriate circumstances, infringement by internet streaming, or by means of other similar new technology, is a felony,” they write.

Laws aside, the U.S. should continue to work with other countries to crack down on piracy. If the entertainment industries have their way the actions against MegaUpload earlier this year will become the standard.

Judging from previous consultations, the recommendations of the MPAA and RIAA will not go unheard by Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel, but whether the proposed solutions will be good enough to quash The Pirate Bay remains to be seen.