Epic role for MGM's new defender against film piracy.

Laura Tunberg, trained for the classical theater, is developing a new role: movie cop. As Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.'s new vice president of intellectual property enforcement, Tunberg keeps an eye on the studio's 4,200-title film library and the roughly 15 new films and 15 new TV shows released annually.

She also represents MGM on the Motion Picture Association of America's anti-piracy litigation committee, which enforces the property rights of the major U.S. movie studios worldwide.

Working for the studio melds a more recent interest with her childhood ambition.

"I had been doing live theater since I was in high school." she said. "I realized I was not going to be able make a living doing this, so I went back to school to become a drama teacher. I started teaching and realized it was not for me and made the decision to go to law school."

Tunberg has other connections to MGM. Karl Tunberg, her great uncle, wrote more than 40 screenplays for the studio, including "Ben Hur," winner of 11 Oscars in 1959.

Tunberg received a bachelor's degree in drama education from San Francisco State University in 1990 and a law degree from the Santa Barbara College of Law in 1994. After a working in general litigation for Keller Entertainment in Sherman Oaks, she joined MGM in 1998 to work on general litigation and rights research and her job quickly centered on piracy litigation. She became MGM's MPAA representative in 1999.

"When I first started doing this, it was a shock that it wasn't on the tip of everyone's tongue," she said. "We knew this was going to happen with movies. The Internet really changed the nature of piracy."

Tunberg, 42, lives in Sherman Oaks with her husband and two children.