[opendtv] Lights! Camera! Legal Action!

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA478095.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP

Lights! Camera! Legal Action!

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable

11/4/2004 3:28:00 PM


The Motion Picture Association of America said Thursday that it will 
start filing civil suits against individuals illegally swapping movie 
files over the Internet.

Beginning Nov. 16, it will seek damages and injunctive relief under 
the Copyright Act. Damages could be as much as $150,000 per film if 
the violation is found to be "willful."

The music industry took the same route in trying to stop the illegal 
music downloads that have "decimated" that industry.

Saying that the group is not targeting legal downloads or digital 
distribution, which it says it recognizes as the "wave of the 
future," new MPAA President Dan Glickman said the industry "cannot 
allow illegal trafficking to derail legitimate new technologies." 
Glickman said that people currently "stealing our movies believe they 
are anonymous... they are wrong. We know who they are, and we will go 
after them, as these suits will prove."

Just last week, Bob Wright, the dean of network chiefs, one of the 
industry's highest profile spokesmen, who oversees the NBC Universal 
studio among many other businesses, put the issue of digital piracy 
at the top of his agenda.

He labeled unrestricted digital copying as a threat to a $1.25 
trillion business--television, movies, publishing and 
software--"whose capital is composed almost entirely of intellectual 
property," as well as the sectors that support those industries or 
depend on them.

Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, which advocates fair-use 
copying rights, did not oppose the move, saying the group 
"acknowledges the potential threat that large scale unauthorized file 
trading of movies may pose, and has encouraged the motion picture 
industry to protect its copyrights by pursuing strategically 
targeted, appropriate legal action against actual infringers, 
particularly in the case of pre-release films."

But she also said lawsuits won't solve the problem, arguing for 
"limited, self-help measures, and balanced public education."

Glickman announced the suits at the UCLA film school. He has a big 
ally of the governor of that state, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who 
recently signed into law a bill making it illegal to trade movies 
over the 'net without identifying the trader's e-mail address.
 
 
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