Hollywood to film pirates: you have 24 hours to shut down sites… or else

The Motion Picture Association of America has issued a mysterious warning to those running torrenting and other sites to get access to films

An army recruit dressed in an 18th century costume lights the fuse to fire a blank from a cannon during a ceremony known as "The Canonazo" in Havana. The ceremony is carried out every night at 9pm and was originally used to signal to the people that the g (Reuters)

A group representing the biggest film studios is issuing mysterious threats to those running piracy sites, telling them to shut down sites within a day or face unknown consequences.

The Motion Picture Association of America has sent letters to websites across Europe telling them to “take effective measures to end and prevent further copyright infringement” within 24 hours. The emails use the same language in all cases and have been sent to the biggest torrenting sites as well as niche hosting services.

The letters tell those running the sites about the European laws that are used to pursue those linking to pirate films and TV shows, according to TorrentFreak. But it doesn’t say that the organisation will pursue any specific actions against the operators of sites, simply setting a 24 hour deadline.

“All opportunities provided by the Website to download, stream or otherwise obtain access to the Entertainment Content should be disabled permanently,” the email says.

The email also points to sites using film posters and artwork without the permission of studios. “Since the MPA Members haven’t authorized the Website to publish the Artwork, the Website is infringing copyright on that basis as well,” the organisation’s vice president of global content protection, Jan van Voorn writes.

None of the sites that have received the messages are thought to have shut down, apart from the small site micromkv.com.

Asked to provide further detail on the content of the threats by TorrentFreak, the Motion Picture Association would not elaborate and simply said that the notices “ask respectfully that effective measures be taken to stop further infringement”.