NEW YORK POST: Amazon and Netflix are heading up a new anti-piracy group

Amazon, Netflix and Hulu have signed on to be part of a giant global group to fight online piracy.

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Google, however, is not on the list.

The group, calling themselves the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), includes Hollywood’s big studios and a host of other major international content creators.

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Just last month, hackers threatened Disney with the early release of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Names” unless the firm paid a ransom.

And in April, hackers calling themselves “TheDarkOverlord” released most of the fifth season of Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black” series.

Google, which owns YouTube, also runs YouTubeTV, a cable-like service for accessing TV channels online. It’s not clear if Google was invited to join the group, or was approached and declined.

Prior efforts by Tinseltown to end piracy targeted Google as part of the problem. The studios’ 2011 legal campaign, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), ended up in an all-out war between Silicon Valley’s tech titans and Hollywood over how the internet operates.

The SOPA group had wanted tech sites to remove links to sites selling illegal content. The tech firms had argued that such suggestions fundamentally change the nature of the web.

This time around, the anti-piracy group is more global in nature and includes two major forces in technology, Amazon and Netflix.

There are now 490 online services for TV and film worldwide, according to press statement from the group, but shows can be found on pirate sites within hours and days of a new release.

The group calculates that there were an estimated 5.4 billion downloads of pirate movies and shows using peer-to-peer sites.

The creative group said it will work with the backing of the Motion Picture Association of America. The MPAA’s Chris Dodd is set to step down this year and hand over the reins to Charles Rivkin in 2018.

The members are: Amazon, AMC Networks, BBC Worldwide, Bell Canada, Bell Media, Canal+Group, CBS Corporation, Constantin Film, Foxtel, Grupo Globo, HBO, Hulu, Lionsgate, MGM, Millenium Media, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount Pictures, SF Studios, Sky, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Star India, Studio Babelsberg, STX Entertainment, Telemundo, Televisa, Twentieth Century Fox, Univision Communications, Village Roadshow, The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Netflix general counsel David Hyman said in a statement: “While we’re focused on providing a great consumer experience that ultimately discourages piracy, there are still bad players around the world trying to profit off the hard work of others.”

To read more, please visit: http://nypost.com/2017/06/13/amazon-and-netflix-are-heading-...