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MPAA launches its attack against P2P users

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 17 Nov 2004 12:47 User comments (7)

MPAA launches its attack against P2P users After years of waiting on the sidelines, the Movie Picture Association of America finally followed the RIAA's path and launched its full-blown attack against the American P2P users yesterday.
The organization that represents all major Hollywood movie studios declined to comment on how many individuals it had sued, but according to the reports at least 22 people have been sued in Denver and another 18 in St. Louis. Some reports suggest that also users in New York and Philadelphia were targeted. According to News24, at least four of the users sued in St. Louis were in possession of just one pirated movie each.

When asked about the scale of the attack, MPAA's director of worldwide anti-piracy operations, John Malcolm, said "It doesn't matter if it's 10 lawsuits or 500 lawsuits. The idea here is that there is no safe harbour."

So, it seems that movie studios have noticed how well the music industry's strategy of sueing your potential customers has worked and have decided to drag a couple of more teenagers to court. MPAA hasn't given any indication if it is prepared to settle the cases out of court or if it wants to go through the whole court process in order to set an example for other P2P users sharing movies.



Source: News24

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7 user comments

117.11.2004 01:45

Ah, yet another attack by the movie industry on a new technology, but the outcome will always be the exact same, they will HAVE to find a way to co-exist with the technology.

217.11.2004 08:06

Downhill Battle has just launched a counter attack to the efforts by MPAA and BSA called Kids Smell Bullshit at www.kidssmellbullshit.com and copyrightcurriculum.com. There is a letter/photo contest for kids to write to BSA/MPAA to win an ipod mini and a wiki for building a balanced curriculum. Downhill Battle thinks that the filesharing issue is the most engaging issue for kids and they obviously are getting involved in fighting back the pro-business, self-interested groups.

317.11.2004 16:59
SoufSide
Inactive

I wonder if any of those people the the MPAA is trying to sue were running any kind of ip filtering software(protowall,Peer Gaurdian)?

417.11.2004 20:55

I still want to know what networks are being targeted. Many people have suggested Bit Torrent as one of the likely targets, but I don't think there is anything to base that assumption on. I guess the reasoning is that Bit Torrent is the best way to get large files. They have been tight about information so far. Eventually it will come out. And there is no way in hell the MPAA wants to take these people to court. I wonder what the movie settlement amount will average? My guess, um, $10,000.

518.11.2004 10:17
pcshateme
Inactive

well im not stupid enough to use p2p so i dont care- why doesnt these companies just back off or even better- why not use p2p to there advantage and find a way to sell movies thru p2p? like you can download a divx or VCD of a movie for say $5 and once you download it- its yours to keep.

618.11.2004 10:33

No problem of sueing in Holland! Hehehe =P

724.11.2004 01:06

Nope, not YET..just a matter of time zomertje

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