The MPA’s latest campaign to block piracy sites could transform internet freedom and ignite a fierce battle over digital rights.

The US Motion Picture Association (MPA), a trade association representing half a dozen huge film and TV studios, is gearing up for a big campaign to get lawmakers to pass legislation that would force ISPs to block sites – yet another way the industry hopes to fight its long “war on piracy.”

Association CEO Charles Rivkin revealed that this essentially lobbying effort of “working with Congress members” has the goal of mandating that internet providers must block sites accused of piracy.

Addressing the CinemaCon in Las Vegas, which gathers owners of movie theaters, Rivkin stated that “the next major phase” in what he said was an evolving danger of piracy is MPA “working with members of Congress to enact judicial site-blocking legislation here in the United States.”