April 9, 2006
It might be called Hollywood's revenge. Angered that its fans don't spend enough time at the movies, Hollywood is reaching into consumers' homes to seek retribution against those allegedly peddling counterfeit movies on eBay.
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA), the movie industry's powerful lobbying arm, has filed 14 lawsuits against eBay sellers who it says have been selling counterfeit DVDs, seeking criminal penalties that could include jail time and fines up to $250,000.
"People who abuse online auction sites like eBay to sell counterfeit DVDs are not only cheating their buyers, they are committing a serious crime and will be held accountable," said MPAA's John G. Malcolm, who is described as the organization's Director of Worldwide Anti-Piracy Operations.
"Our goal is to raise awareness and protect unsuspecting consumers from dishonest transactions in the online marketplace. Profiting from the sale of someone else's creative property is illegal and we want to get this message out to both buyers and sellers," Malcolm said.
Some of the titles allegedly being sold by the supposed pirates include "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "State of the Union," "Ice Age," "Toy Story," "Sahara" and "A Beautiful Mind."
The lawsuits were filed in Los Angeles federal court against individuals in Alabama, Florida, Kansas, Maryland and Michigan.
MPAA said it wants to "protect consumers from being tricked into purchasing counterfeit copies of movies online."
The MPAA estimates its member companies lost $3.5 billion last year due to hard goods piracy. The group cites a Smith Barney study conducted in 2003 that said the movie industry would lose up to $5.4 billion in 2005 including Internet piracy. The loss assumes consumers would pay full price for legitimate copies of the movies if they did not buy cheaper counterfeits.
