Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Hollywood to Sue Server Operators

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Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 12-14-2004, 03:56 PM:

Source: Hollywood to Sue Server Operators

Tue Dec 14, 1:05 PM ET

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES - The U.S. film industry is preparing to sue computer server operators in the United States and Europe who help relay digitized movie files across online file-sharing networks, a source familiar with the movie studios' plans said Tuesday.

The lawsuits are aimed at disrupting the unauthorized distribution of movie files through BitTorrent and eDonkey, two popular online file-swapping services, the source associated with the effort The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Calls to the Motion Picture Association of America were not immediately returned Tuesday. The trade group was expected to formally announce the lawsuit campaign at a news conference in Washington scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

BitTorrent and eDonkey work differently but both enable computer users to share music, film, software and other files.

Both services have steadily gained in popularity after the recording industry began cracking down last year on users of Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster and other established file-sharing software.

To disrupt BitTorrent users, the movie studios' lawsuits will target U.S.-based tracking servers that help direct how the bits of data move between users, the source said.

Similarly, the film industry's litigation will target eDonkey servers in Europe that also help relay data between computer users, the source said.

It was not immediately clear how many server operators would be sued or when the lawsuits would be filed.

Hollywood movie studios have become more proactive recently in their efforts to stamp out the unauthorized trading of films online, which the studios say has the potential to threaten their industry, particularly as bandwidth makes the large movie files easier to download.

By comparison, music files are far smaller and swapped at greater volume.

Last month, the studios began suing computer users for swapping digitized films online for copyright infringement. The industry has also been a party to lawsuits against Kazaa, Morpheus and Grokster.

The industry failed to persuade U.S. federal courts to shut down the services, and is awaiting a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites).

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Okay, now can the Server Operators use the facts and figures of the MPAA in their defense? That the motion picture industry has seen a significant INCREASE in profits each year since 1997? And that, as file-sharing increases, so do the profits? Hmmm....

=TMP=

Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 12-15-2004, 02:32 PM:

There is a simple solution to this problem.
The movie studios and record labels just need to create their own user accounts and upload their own files and put a virus in each one.
Then the people downloading illegal copies would get their computers infected because they "deserve" it and once the word gets around, others will stop.

Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 12-15-2004, 03:46 PM:

Some problems there.

Everyone with any sense has some kinf anti virus running.
How the heck do you put executable code in an MP3 or MPG file? AFAIK it hasn't been done... yet.

I'm pretty sure it would be a fairly serious offence to deliberately creat and distribute a virus, even if it's intentions were legitimate.

The solution to piracy is simple, ask a fair price for the product. Here in the UK it's not uncommon to see prices in the order of £18 sterling for a non chart but popular album (Pink Floyd - The Wall) for example. Now if that was say £10....

Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 12-15-2004, 04:13 PM:

It was just a thought.
I'm sure fair prices would help some, but once people can get it for free, many of them will see no reason to pay anything for it, no matter what the price.

Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 12-15-2004, 04:31 PM:

It may well be time to take a serious look at copyright laws. Rewrite them and close the loopholes. In the meantime, we will await the Supreme Court's decision. Don't hold your breath on either of these solutions, however.