MPAA unleashes legal eagles on YouTV and Peekvid

The Motion Picture Ass. of America (MPAA) has filed lawsuits against YouTV.com and Peekvid.com, claiming the sites' "sole purpose... is to disseminate content that has been illegally reproduced and distributed".

Civil lawsuits were filed against YouTVpc and Peekvid in US District Court in Los Angeles for "damages and injunctive relief" for violations under the United States Copyright Act of 1976.

The MPAA alleges that the two sites "contribute to and profit from massive copyright infringement by identifying, posting, organizing and indexing links to infringing content found on the internet".

They also profit "handsomely" from this nefarious trade, thanks to "a seemingly endless stream of third-party advertising", the MPAA says. In addition to this income, YouTV.com has a "donate here"-type button, where users can contribute to the upkeep of the pages.

John Malcolm, director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the MPAA, said: "These lawsuits should serve as a warning to other aspiring movie theft ‘entrepreneurs’ that they are not above the law and will face serious consequences for their activities."

"Profiting from the theft of other people’s creative works is illegal and must be stopped,” he added.

Still maintaining that it is possible to say with certainty that each illegal download is a lost sale, the MPAA says internet piracy has cost the industry $7bn in 2005. Presumably, it is still counting the cost of 2006. ®