MPAA WIDENS PIRACY NET NEW LAWSUITS TARGET ONLINE COMPUTER SERVER OPERATORS.

Byline: Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Hollywood studios launched legal attacks Tuesday on the computer server operators they claim are the technological middlemen making online film theft possible.

In more than 100 civil and criminal lawsuits filed throughout the U.S. and Europe, the Motion Picture Association of America targeted individuals operating file-sharing programs developed by three companies: BitTorrent, eDonkey and Direct Connect.

The popular online file-trading services work in different ways but, according to the MPAA, provide users with lists of movies and television shows that can be swapped.

``They are essential cogs in the piracy machine, connecting those who want to steal with those who have a copy,'' MPAA Senior Vice President John Malcolm said.

Legal notices, he said, have also been sent to Internet service providers ordering them to shut down the servers.

``Trafficking in motion pictures is serious business and will be met with serious penalties,'' Malcolm said.

The new crackdown comes about a month after the MPAA instigated an all-out attack on piracy, suing more than 200 individuals it accused of stealing movies off the Internet.

Hollywood maintains it loses $3.5 billion annually through piracy, and that figure is expected to climb next year to more than $5 billion. But, MPAA officials have acknowledged, that figure comes strictly from physical bootlegs.

The industry has not released any figures quantifying the costs of illegal file-sharing, but Malcolm on Tuesday predicted losses will be ``staggeringly high.''

The MPAA declined to say exactly how many people they are suing, or where the suits were filed.

But the creators of the file-sharing technology said Tuesday they are not affected by the lawsuits. They also said they were not surprised by them.

``I expected them to be filed long ago,'' said Bram Cohen, the 29-year- old creator of BitTorrent.

Cohen, based in Bellevue, Wash., noted that neither he nor other providers of file-sharing technology have control over how it is used. But, he said, ``There are people running sites that use BitTorrent that are engaging in flagrantly illegal activities. The real question is why they (Hollywood) didn't take action sooner.''

Sam Yagen, president of the New York-based eDonkey, also called the suits ``a little late.'' He noted that the MPAA is targeting individuals using 3-year-old technology that isn't even active any more.

Advocates of electronic freedom said the suits are unlikely to cut down on piracy.

``Like all of the other efforts, I think it just drives people from one means of exchanging files to another. If they find this particular method is too risky, they'll just move to something the MPAA isn't searching out yet,'' said Wendy Seltzer, staff attorney at the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Lisa Friedman, [phone]

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com