"Illegal movie trafficking represents the greatest threat to the
economic basis of movie-making in its 110-year history," declared
MPAA President and CEO Dan Glickman. "People who have been stealing
our movies believe they are anonymous on the internet, and wouldn't
be held responsible for their actions. They are wrong. We know who
they are, and we will go after them, as these suits will
prove."
File-sharing, where users distribute and download copyrighted
works over P2P services such as Kazaa, is most commonly associated
with music, where the growth in swapping digital music files has
been blamed by the industry for falling sales and a consequent fall
in revenue.
As yet the file-sharing of movies has not taken off so
dramatically – probably because of the enormous file-size and time
needed to download even a poor quality film – but the industry is
aware that as technology advances, the file-sharing of its products
will increase.
"We all know that digital distribution is the wave of the
future, and the studios have all supported legal download services
in various ways," Glickman said. "But we cannot allow illegal
trafficking to derail legitimate new technologies that provide
consumers with affordable, convenient access to high-quality movies
on the web. Trading a digital file of a movie on-line without
paying its owners is no different than walking into a store and
shoplifting a DVD."
According to the MPAA, from 16th November its member companies
will begin to file lawsuits against individual file-swappers across
the country. These civil suits will seek damages, which may be as
much as $30,000 for each separate motion picture illegally copied
or distributed by an individual over the internet, and as much as
$150,000 per motion picture if such infringement is proven to be
wilful.
The suits will also ask for injunctions against the individuals
concerned.
"Filing suit against movie thieves is our latest step in a
wide-ranging, multi-pronged anti-piracy effort, but far from our
first," Glickman said. "But file-swapping is a viral threat that we
must bring under control now. File traders must realise that bad
things happen when you steal copyrighted material. These lawsuits
are just one of those bad things."
