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