MPAA FILES PIRACY SUITS GROUP FIRES FIRST SALVO IN MOVIE COPY WAR.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

The Motion Picture Association of America on Tuesday filed its first wave of lawsuits against people it alleges have traded illegally copied movies online, a practice the MPAA says represents the greatest economic threat ever to the industry.

The association filed more than 200 civil lawsuits nationwide, with the number expected to grow and eventually reach all 50 states. The move is similar to one made by the recording industry, which began suing people earlier this year for sharing songs through peer-to-peer networks.

``The motion picture industry must pursue legal proceedings against people who are stealing our movies on the Internet,'' MPAA President and CEO Dan Glickman said in a statement. ``The future of our industry, and of the hundreds of thousands of jobs it supports, must be protected from this kind of outright theft using all available means.''

The MPAA estimates that piracy currently costs the industry about $3.5 billion annually in revenues. Under the United States Copyright Act, each violator could be subject to fines of between $30,000 and $150,000 per violation.

``Unfortunately, there's a certain culture out there that thinks this is fun, that it is free and that this is somehow a victimless crime,'' said John C. Malcolm, the MPAA's director of worldwide anti-piracy operations. ``We've been talking to universities and doing outreach, but they haven't stopped based on what we have done so far so we consider this a necessary first step.''

Andrew Bridges, an intellectual property lawyer in the San Francisco office of Winston & Strawn, said the MPAA could fare better than the recording industry, which has experienced slow progress in stemming the practice but does report an increase in the use of legitimate downloading services such as iTunes.

``The consumer experience of movies is vastly different from songs,'' Bridges said. ``Consumers are accustomed to enjoying an uninterrupted song for free on the radio. They are not accustomed to seeing uninterrupted movies for free on television.''

Glickman stressed that the litigation was only part of broader efforts by the MPAA to combat the problem. The trade group for Hollywood's major studios has teamed with the Video Software Dealers Association in a public-outreach program called ``Rated I: Inappropriate for All Ages,'' which will be in about 10,000 stores nationwide beginning next month.

Stores will play anti-piracy trailers on their in-store monitors and will have anti-piracy posters and counter cards on display, featuring such slogans as ``You Can Click, But You Can't Hide.'' The ``Rated I'' campaign has already been featured in recent months in theaters, newspapers, magazines and on the Internet.

VSDA President Bo Andersen said Tuesday that video retailers are threatened with significant losses from illegal file trading and from the bootleg copies of DVDs that are being sold on the street.

``With their neighborhood locations and strong customer relationships, video stores are in an excellent position to educate millions of consumers about the problem and consequences of movie piracy,'' Andersen said.

The MPAA also announced Tuesday that a free program which identifies movie and music titles stored on a computer along with any installed peer-to-peer file-swapping programs will soon be made available to the public. Glickman said parents concerned about what their children have downloaded and where they've downloaded it from will find this tool to be a good resource.

Information generated by the program would be made available only to the program's user, and would not be shared with or reported to the MPAA or any other body. Armed with the program's findings, a computer user can remove infringing movies or music files, and remove any peer-to-peer applications.

``These initiatives are part of our efforts to ensure the Digital Age does not get commandeered by thieves who see it as an open grab bag,'' Glickman stated. ``The motion picture industry is embracing digital age technologies, such as Movielink and CinemaNow, that will create so many exciting new opportunities. But legal services such as these need a chance to grow and thrive without having to compete against illegitimate operations that depend on stolen property to survive.''

Greg Hernandez, [phone]

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com