The MPAA is ready for the media battle against the 24 year-old university student and former admin of video link sharing website TV-Shack, whom the US government is trying to extradite to the US to face a possible 10 year prison sentence
A leaked memo and other documents has highlighted the Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA) strategy to put a positive spin on the hugely unpopular move to extradite former TV-Shack admin, and UK uni student, Richard O'Dwyer to the US to face criminal copyright infringement charges, which could lead to a 10 years prison sentence.
The extradition, opposed by 95% of the public in a recent survey, is also opposed by Net-celebrities including Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. An online petitionto stop the extradition of O'Dwyer has already received more than 240,000 signatures.
But the MPAA, whose lobbying efforts led to the US Justice Department to take action on TV-Shack and O'Dwyer, wants to change the conversation, and leaked documents has revealed the talking points, and general strategy that the powerful copyright lobbying group will use again O'Dwyer.
Starting with painting O'Dwyer as a willing criminal engaged in a "profitable" criminal enterprise, the MPAA is also keen to move the conversation away from one of "censorship" and "Internet freedom". "It's about a man profiting from theft," one of the suggested talking points read.
The MPAA also deals directly with Jimmy Wales's support, calling Wales "presumptuous" for trying to speak for the "general public", and instead suggests those interviewed should claim the MPAA speaks for the "hundreds of thousands of creators and makers" and "the millions of Internet users who care about privacy and security".
The MPAA even makes O`Dwyer's clothes and his mother into the line of attack against the 24 year old university student. "Being 24, posing for newspaper photo shoots in a cartoon sweatshirt, and having your mother andJimmy Wales speak for you, does not mean you are incapable for breaking the law," one of the hypothetical Q&A answers at the end of the talking points memo writes.
But mere talking points are not enough, if those speaking it aren't the "right people". In a separate leaked document, the MPAA wants to recruit "allies" and "third-party surrogates" to spin their side of the story against O'Dwyer. The MPAA does admit that finding such an ally would be difficult, if not impossible, due to the overwhelming opposition to the extradition.
You can read both leaked documents on TorrentFreak, here and here.
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