James Delahunty
3 Aug 2005 10:47
Following the example of the recording industry, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has filed more lawsuits against file sharers it alleges to have distributed copyrighted movies illegally over P2P networks. The cases could result in fines of up to $150,000 or prison terms. A warning also went out from the MPAA which said there would be no let up in the fight against piracy.
"People needed to learn that piracy was harmful to the people who use their talents to create movies", said MPAA director for worldwide anti-piracy, John Malcolm. Not only can users of P2P services be sued for uploading and downloading copyrighted material, now in some cases, filesharing companies could be held liable for infringement by their users also due to the Supreme Court decision back in June.
John Malcolm said that the MPAA doesn't like suing people or paying for lawyers but that it would have to continue its fight against online distribution of stolen movies. In 2004, it is estimated that the movie industry lost $3.5bn (£1.9bn) to piracy, but that figure doesn't include online file sharing. A lot of P2P users who share and download movies condemn the lawsuits saying that the movie industry doesn't offer "proper" legal alternatives for movie downloading.
Source:
BBC News