PIRACY SUITS TO BE FILED LEGAL ATTACK IS ON FILM-SHARERS.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

Hollywood's movie studios will announce today that hundreds of copyright infringement lawsuits will be filed against people they allege are illegally distributing feature films online, a hard-line tactic that mirrors the anti-piracy efforts of the recording industry.

Sources said Wednesday that the first wave of litigation will target movie fans who share digitized versions of films over peer-to-peer networks.

The MPAA's action marks the first time the movie industry would be taking the same legal approach as the Recording Industry Association of America, which began filing suits against peer-to-peer music swappers last year.

Motion Picture Association of America President and CEO Dan Glickman, who succeeded Jack Valenti earlier this year, will be joined by studio executives, legislators, filmmakers and others at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television this morning, where he will address the digital piracy threat and outline the organization's plans.

The movie industry could lose as much as $15 billion in revenue over the next four years if it doesn't take dramatic steps to curb piracy, the Motion Picture Association of America's head of worldwide anti-piracy said two weeks ago.

Applying the music's rate of decline in determining his estimate, the MPAA's John G. Malcom said at recent forum that the movie industry ``is in serious danger of suffering the same fate as the music industry.''

The survey this summer of 3,600 Internet users in eight countries, including the United States, showed that 17 percent of those downloading movies are buying theater tickets less often and 26 percent are buying or renting movies less frequently. The study was released by the MPAA and OTX, a global online research company.

Greg Hernandez, [phone]

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com