Movie studios to move against P2P users

Hollywood is said to be joining in the fight against users of peer-to-peer (P2P) sites who download illegal copies of movies.

Reports from US newspapers say that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which represents the major film studios, will begin suing movie fans who share films over P2P, and could announce the first wave of litigation sometime today.

The MPAA is said to be planning an onslaught against P2P users of sites such as Kazaa, eDonkey and Grokster along the lines of the litigation currently being carried out by the Recording Industry Association of America.

The music industry body has already sued over 6,200 people since September last year.

A press release issued by the MPPA said that its president, Dan Glickman, would be making "a major announcement regarding illegal file sharing of motion pictures on peer-to-peer networks" possibly today.

Reports have suggested that around 200 people could be targeted today in a move that has already been criticised by Public Knowledge, a US public-interest advocacy and education organisation.

It has said that, although litigation in some cases is appropriate, targeting individuals this way is not going to stop illegal file swapping.

Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, said in a statement: "Public Knowledge acknowledges the potential threat that large scale unauthorised file trading of movies may pose, [but] also firmly believes that simply bringing lawsuits against individual infringers will not solve the problem of infringing activity over P2P networks."