NBC Interactive Threatens Suppliers if they Don't Support SOPA!

from +Cameron Wright .

Leaked E-Mail

Guys, check this out! This email just started hitting online forums today. The phone numbers listed are valid. CBS and friends were the ones who distributed Limewire, BitTorrent and pretty much every easy to use file sharing software out there. They even made marketing deals with the PirateBay file sharing site. Of course at the same time they cry about lost revenue from file sharing? It's pretty clear they have just been inflating file sharing losses to push the SOPA censorship law through. Now sadly, it appears that NBC is involved too and they are going so far as the threaten their suppliers. Take a look at the line I bolded in the email.

If you are so inclined I would suggest spreading this letter around.. There are so many news organizations involved I doubt we will hear anything about this in the offline world.

_Headers removed
This message came from: nbcuniversalsupplier_communications@nbcuni.com
To: NBCUniversal Supplier Communications (NBCUniversal)
Subject: Message from NBCUniversal’s Rick Cotton, Marcia Haynes, and John Wallace

To Our Suppliers:

We are writing to ask you for help on an issue that is one our top business priorities – content theft on the Internet, which is a major threat to the strength of our business. Our major guilds and unions are joining us in the fight to keep our businesses strong so that the tidal wave of content theft does not kill jobs. But if the current trend continues, it’s not too strong to say that this threat could adversely affect our business relationship with you.

We’re writing today to ask you to do two things:

1) Visit creativeamerica.org, a new initiative to build grassroots support for the fight against content theft, and join the fight. Creative America is a place for the people who make their living in this industry to come together with a single voice to speak out against content theft, and that includes you. In addition to NBCUniversal, the members of this unprecedented coalition are CBS, Disney, Fox, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Viacom, and Warner Brothers, along with AFTRA, the DGA, IATSE, and SAG.

2) While you are at the creativeamerica.org site, click on the “Contact your Legislator” button to let your representative and senators in Congress know that you support an important new piece of legislation called the PROTECT IP Act, which would authorize the U.S. Department of Justice to go after foreign websites that are dedicated to the illegal distribution of our movies and TV shows. The website makes this very easy to do by providing you with a customizable letter along with a tool to let you automatically send a message to your specific legislators, based on your zip code.

We will be sure to keep you informed about our efforts to fight the growing problem of content theft. You can share your thoughts, concerns, or ideas by sending an email to protectourwork@nbcuni.com.

Or if you’d like to discuss specific ways you can help, please feel free to contact either Phil Tahtakran in our Washington, DC office at phil.tahtakran@nbcuni.com, or 202-524-6404, or John

McKay in New York at either john.mckay@nbcuni.com or 212.664.6202.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Rick Cotton
Executive Vice President and General Counsel

Marcia Haynes
Executive Vice President, Sourcing

John Wallace
President, Media Works