The legal fight against illegal downloading continues, this time with a round of litigation instigated by the Motion Picture Association of America against a number of people in Texas accused of illegally uploading film content onto the internet. The legal action pretty much mirrors that pursued by the Recording Industry Association of America, as did the PR message behind it (albeit with an amusing sign off) - MPAA anti-piracy chief John Malcolm told reporters yesterday: "With these lawsuits, our message to internet thieves becomes loud and clear: You are not anonymous, we will find you, and you will be held responsible. You can click, but you can't hide".
Hollywood is becoming increasingly nervous about the possible impact the illegal file sharing of movies will have on their business now that broadband internet is spreading fast. Movie bosses are keen to learn from the lessons learned by their colleagues in the music business to stop the spread of illegal movie downloads. Which presumably means lots of expensive litigation and irritating anti-piracy technologies until Steve Jobs comes up with a consumer friendly business model that competes with free-for-all illegal movie downloads.