More MPAA lawsuits
p2pnet.net News- Waco, Texas, is in the headlines again, thanks to the Hollywood movie studio cartel.
Its MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) has filed four lawsuits against people it claims have been improperly sharing movies online, using peer to peer software.
Named in civil lawsuits are Miguel Mendez, Michael Mouzone, Robert Thomas and Michelle Vedder.
The MPAA is after damages and injunctive relief on behalf of the multi-billion-dollar movie industry, which continues to report revenue increases everywhere, at the same time claiming it`s being ruined by p2p file sharers.
Under the Copyright Act, statutory damages can be as much as $30,000 for each separate motion picture illegally copied or distributed by an individual over the Internet, and as much as $150,000 per motion picture if such infringement is proven to be willful, it says.
“Using data from 2003/4, the industry increased its revenues by nearly five percent and its profit margins by 22 percent,” Canadian law professor Michael Geist reported, quoting Statistics Canada numbers.
“Meanwhile, earnings from movie theatres declined by more than 17 percent. The savior is the DVD market, which did not even exist four years earlier. During this data period, pre-recorded movies accounted for 53 percent of total revenue, with DVDs constituting more than three-quarters of that revenue.”
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See:-
increased its revenues – 2005: movie industry boom year, p2pnet, July 25, 2005
