Donuts, MPAA See Early Progress in Anti-Piracy Domain Names Referral Program

The Donuts domain name registry said it believes its participation in the anti-piracy Trusted Notifier partnership with MPAA "is a useful and efficient manner for addressing blatant online piracy, and we encourage others in the domain name community to follow suit with similar programs." Donuts and MPAA began their anti-piracy partnership in February, agreeing to a set of strict standards for making anti-piracy referrals (see 1602090029). MPAA has since also expanded the Trusted Notifier program to include UAE-based registry Radix (see 1605130053). MPAA has sent Donuts referrals against six websites using Donuts domain names for potentially infringing content, the registry said Wednesday in a blog post. Donuts suspended two of the domain names, and the registrar for two others deleted those domains. Another registrar took action against one of the referred domains, while another domain remains under MPAA investigation and potential Donuts enforcement action, the registry said. The Trusted Notifier program will hopefully “be a pre-cursor to a more streamlined industry-wide process that all interested parties can develop collaboratively,” Donuts said. MPAA Deputy General Counsel Dean Marks said in a blog post Wednesday “we share Donuts’ enthusiasm and positive evaluation of the constructive and cooperative voluntary relationship that we are building together. Furthermore, we share the same hope for future collaboration with more operators of domain name registries and registrars.”