MPAA Officially Files Lawsuits — Shady About Details
from the shooting-yourself-in-the-foot dept
As expected, the MPAA has filed an unknown number of John Doe lawsuits against people they’ve accused of file sharing movies. The group will not say how many were filed because: “It’s not important.” They also say that if movie file sharing doesn’t stop, they’ll have to file more lawsuits… as if they actually believe that these lawsuits will stop file sharing. There’s no recognizition of the fact that many people who download movies would never pay to see the movie anyway, and plenty of others watch a bad copy on their PC before deciding to see the full version in a theater. Also, the MPAA has decided to step up their education campaign by putting “educational material” at video rental places. This material will be the same found in movie theaters. That sounds real smart: focus on accusing all of your actual customers of being thieves. If, as the MPAA seems to believe, the people downloading movies never go to the movies or rent videos, then why would they put the material there? Finally, the MPAA is trying to be helpful, by offering up some Windows software that will scan your computer to see what unautorized files you have and what file sharing programs you have installed. How long until someone finds the spyware in this program? Also, why should the MPAA be telling you what you have on your own hard drive, especially when file sharing programs, by themselves, are perfectly legal?
