Source: Movie industry to sue computer users

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: November 4, 2004 4:31:14 AM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Source: Movie industry to sue computer users
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com

[Note:  This item comes from reader Mike Cheponis.  DLH]

Posted on Wed, Nov. 03, 2004

Source: Movie industry to sue computer users

ALEX VEIGA
Associated Press
<http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/10091853.htm>

LOS ANGELES - Taking a cue from recording companies, Hollywood movie 
studios are preparing to file copyright infringement lawsuits against 
computer users they say are illegally distributing movies online, a 
source familiar with the studios' plans said Wednesday.

The lawsuits will target movie fans who share digitized versions of 
films over peer-to-peer networks, with the first wave of litigation 
planned for as early as Thursday, according to the source, who spoke on 
condition of anonymity.

Like the recording industry, which began suing individual music 
file-sharers last year, the movie studios plan an ongoing litigation 
campaign, the source said.

The Motion Picture Association of America, which represents the major 
film studios, declined to comment Wednesday. But the organization 
issued a release saying MPAA president and chief executive Dan Glickman 
would be making "a major announcement regarding illegal file sharing of 
motion pictures on peer-to-peer networks" early Thursday.

Studio executives, legislators, filmmakers and union leaders, among 
others were scheduled to participate in the news conference, according 
to the MPAA statement.

The movie studios were still finalizing how many lawsuits would make up 
their initial filing, but it would probably be around 200 or so, the 
source said.

Videotaped copies of films in theaters often are digitized or burned 
off DVDs and then distributed on file-sharing networks accessed with 
software programs like eDonkey, Kazaa and Grokster.

In the past, the MPAA has said its members were reluctant to take legal 
action against individual file-sharers. But Glickman, who took over the 
MPAA in September, has made fighting movie piracy top priority.

The MPAA claims the U.S. movie industry loses more than $3 billion 
annually in potential global revenue because of physical piracy, or 
bogus copies of videos and DVDs of its films.

The MPAA doesn't give an estimate for how much online piracy costs the 
industry annually, but claims the health of the industry is at stake as 
the copying and distribution of movies online continues to grow 
unabated.

Along with the recording industry, movie studios have tried to shut 
down companies behind file-sharing software through litigation with 
little success.

The movie industry has also tried to battle piracy by running ads in 
movie theaters and elsewhere designed to dissuade people from 
file-sharing films by stressing the risks of identity theft and 
liability.

While the lawsuit campaign may thwart some computer users from 
downloading movies online, it's not likely to make much of a dent on 
file-sharing, said Fred von Lohmann, a senior intellectual property 
attorney who represented software distributor StreamCast in a copyright 
infringement case against film and recording companies earlier this 
year.

"This won't do any good," von Lohmann said. "The recording industry 
lawsuits don't appear to have reduced file-sharing to any meaningful 
degree."

---_

AP Business Writer Gary Gentile contributed to this report.


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