December 2004
Internet Piracy Take 2 - Hollywood sues infringers.
In a bid to avoid the massive downturn the music industry suffered as a result of free downloads available on the internet the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is launching a legal action against people who facilitate illegal film downloading.
This has become an issue as the use of broadband has grown and users are able to download larger files, such as video, more quickly.
The actions were filed against users of the file-sharing programs BitTorrent, eDonkey and DirectConnect in the US, UK, France, Finland and the Netherlands.
The MPAA is primarily gunning for those who own the websites which provide access to motion pictures which have been copied or filmed in cinemas.
This action follows legal action taken last month against individuals who were swapping films online and is part of a concerted effort by the film industry to grapple with this issue.
Briffa Comment:
The American film industry is showing its intent, it remains to be seen whether this will control the problem of net piracy. It is at least arguable that the music industry only had an effect in this regard once websites such as ITunes, which allow individuals to pay for downloading individual songs, were introduced.
Please note, this is an American precedent which is unlikely to be followed by Britain, as the British film industry is probably too small.