Hollywood sues film pirates

2004-11-17 08:34

Los Angeles - A trade group representing seven major movie studios filed a first wave of lawsuits against individuals they say are offering pirated copies of films using peer-to-peer file-sharing programs.

As part of a larger effort to combat piracy, The Motion Picture Association of America also said it would soon make available a computer program that sniffs out movie and music files on a user's computer as well as any installed file-sharing programs.

The MPAA announced the federal court suits on Tuesday, but did not say how many defendants were sued or where the lawsuits were filed. The group also did not immediately make available a copy of the complaint.

Three lawsuits, obtained by The Associated Press, were filed in federal courts in St Louis and Denver. Two suits filed in Denver name a total of 22 defendants, while the one in St Louis targets 18 people.

Other lawsuits are believed to have been filed in New York, Philadelphia and other areas with large concentrations of high-speed internet customers. Such connections are required to download the massive movie files.

The St Louis lawsuit is brought against "John Doe" defendants, including four people who are allegedly in possession of one pirated film each.

No amnesty

Like similar lawsuits filed by the record industry against downloaders of music files, the studios say they will be able to identify the individual defendants at a later date.

Some of the pirated copies of films allegedly offered over peer-to-peer networks include Troy, from Warner Bros, Spider-Man 2, from Columbia Pictures and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, from The Walt Disney.

Unlike the recording industry, the Hollywood studios did not offer an amnesty programme for people to admit they have illegal downloaded files.

The lawsuits seek injunctions against the defendants. The copyright law also provides for penalties of up to $30 000 for each motion picture traded over the internet, and up to $150 000 if such infringement is shown to be wilful.

An MPAA executive defended the decision not to say how many suits were filed or where.

"It's not important," said John Malcolm, senior vice president and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the MPAA.

"It doesn't matter if it's 10 lawsuits or 500 lawsuits. The idea here is that there is no safe harbour."

Malcolm said more lawsuits would be filed in additional cities if the current legal action does not stem illegal downloading.

On the net:

www.respectcopyrights.org

- AP