Motion Picture Association of America

Industry:	Motion Pictures, Film, Television
Founded:	1922
Headquarters:	1600 Eye St., NW Washington, D.C. 20006
Country:	USA
Website:	mpaa.org
Blog:	mpaa.org/blog
Facebook:	MPAA
Twitter:	@MPAA
Key People
Christopher J. Dodd, Chairman & CEO

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is a trade association representing major producers and distributors of theatrical motion pictures, television programs, and home video material. It was established in 1922 as Motion Picture Producers and Distributors by several presidents of major motion picture studios. It was renamed Motion Picture Association of America in the year 1945.

The main offices of the MPAA are located in Los Angeles, California, and Washington D.C. It also has content protection teams based in Chicago, New York and Dallas. Apart from these, the MPAA and its subsidiaries also have commercial and regional offices in Singapore, Brussels, Mexico City, Sao Paulo and Toronto. The MPAA, along with its content protection groups, also works with various other organizations from more than 30 countries all around the world.

The MPAA is comprised of the 6 major motion picture studios in the US, which are Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Sony Pictures Corporation, Warner Bros Entertainment Inc., Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Paramount Pictures Corporation and Universal City Studios LLC.

Functions of the MPAA

The main mission of the MPAA is to enhance the art and business of filmmaking and increase its enjoyment all over the world.

The MPAA works towards providing creative as well as artistic freedom for filmmakers, as well towards rallying private and public institutions all around the world and safeguarding their interests as well as protect their intellectual property rights. It also thrives towards enhancing technology-driven innovation and works towards opening the markets to the film industry. The MPAA is the advocate and voice of American motion picture and television industries, as well as makers home video. Its efforts range from engaging in myriad technology, legislative, education and law enforcement initiatives.

MPAA and ICANN

MPAA supports ICANN's aim to introduce a limited number of TLDs as a proof of concept as it believes that it will help to bring about consistency and stability of the Internet as well as enhance the utility of the DNS. The MPAA is also one of the active members of the Intellectual Property and Business Constituencies of the ICANN Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO). The MPAA also works with ICANN to protect its interest in case of there is any theft to its intellectual property materials.

Project Goliath

In December 2014, a leaked legal memo released following a major hack of Sony Pictures revealed a plan on the part of the MPAA to blacklist pirate websites on the ISP level, erasing the URLs for sites that infringe copyright in the DNS. This tactic was originally proposed in the Stop Online Piracy Act, which was shelved due to widespread public opposition. The legal memo has given rise to substantial public opposition given the widely perceived risk of censorship and abuse of power if it were enacted.