MPAA announces that it is adding lawsuits to its arsenal to stop movie piracy online

The MPAA has announced that starting later this month, they will sue movie pirates whom have traded motion pictures online. The cases are ready for filing and all investigations are over...so stopping now won't reduce your chances of being sued. This next step was designed to remind those downloading movies that they have the same legal teeth as the RIAA before them. But the MPAA has been extraordinarily patient, and has taken years before these announced lawsuits were ever filed.

Instead, they spent far more time in education and awareness. And these lawsuits are filed seeking the identity of the filesharers from a judge, instead of the subpoena process used (and abused) by the RIAA before them.

On the tail of their awareness messages of "You can click but you can't hide" and the roll-out of university compliance programs and acceptable use policies prohibiting movie downloads, the MPAA sees this as a needed, although, reluctant step. It is part of, not the whole, campaign to try and curtail movie piracy before it does to the motion picture industry what it do to the music industry.

Colleg students are likely defendants, since the large servers at colleges and high speed access make movie sharing much easier than for most of the rest of us.

look for more...