Los Angeles – The Motion Picture Association of America
(MPAA) on Tuesday filed suit against file-hosting service Hotfile, alleging the
firm "profits handsomely" from "encouraging and providing the
means for massive copyright infringment." "In less than two years
Hotfile has become one of the 100 most trafficked sites in the world. That is a direct result of the massive
digital theft that Hotfile promotes," said Daniel Mandil, the MPAA’s
general counsel and chief content protection officer.
"Everyday Hotfile is
responsible for the theft of thousands of MPAA member companies’ movies and TV
shows — including movies still playing in theaters — many of which are stolen
repeatedly, thousands of times a day, every single day."
The MPAA alleges
that Hotfile "openly discourages use of its system for personal
storage" use, and "operates an incentive scheme that rewards users
for uploading the most popular files — which are almost exclusively copyrighted
works."
The movie studios are suing Hotfile and its operator Anton Titov,
a foreign national residing in Florida.
Last month, Hotfile and 1,000 of its users were sued for copyright infringement by Liberty Media — a California-based company, not the media conglomerate controlled by John Malone. That lawsuit is also asking a court to freeze Hotfile’s PayPal account.
A U.S. federal court has ruled
that fellow cyberlocker service RapidShare was not violating copyrights; that
company was also cleared of liability on copyright infringement charges in
Germany.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/46k3aef
(PDF: MPAA statement)
http://tinyurl.com/2bfedc5
(DMW previous coverage)
http://tinyurl.com/4p5audh (DMW previous coverage)
