MPAA Files Suit Against Two Internet Sites

LOS ANGELES, June 28: The Motion Picture Association of
America, on behalf of the major Hollywood studios, has filed lawsuits against
the websites YouTVpc.com and Peekvid.com, alleging that they facilitate copyright
infringement by providing links to illegal content posted on other sites.

“The sole purpose of these sites is to disseminate content
that has been illegally reproduced and distributed,” said John Malcolm, the
executive VP and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the MPAA.
“They are a one-stop shop for copyright infringement. 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.”

Both sites are ad supported. According to the MPAA, the San
Antonio, Texas-based Peekvid averages over 53,000 unique users per day who view
over 184,000 pages of content. YouTVpc, whose servers are located in
Scottsdale, Arizona, averages more than 6,000 unique daily visitors who view
over 21,000 pages of content per day.

Civil lawsuits were filed against YouTVpc and Peekvid in
U.S. District Court in Los Angeles for damages. The MPAA is also seeking an
injunction barring the sites from continuing to link to pirated material.

The MPAA maintains that the worldwide motion picture
industry, including foreign and domestic producers, distributors, theaters,
video stores and pay-per-view operators, lost $18.2 billion in 2005 as a result
of piracy—over $7 billion of which is attributed to Internet piracy and
more than $11 billion attributed to hard goods piracy including bootlegging and
illegal copying.