TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Film Studios Win $24 Million Against Web Site

Film Studios Win $24 Million Against Web Site

Lisa Minter (lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com)
Thu, 25 Nov 2004 11:28:19 EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hollywood's major movie studios said they won
a $23.8 million judgment against a California company and its
Malaysian owner for operating a Web site that charged customers to
download illegally copied movies.

The company, MasterSurf Inc, is owned by Tan Soo Leong, and it
operated a site called Film88.com, according to a statement by the
Motion Picture Association of America, which represents the studios in
governmental and industry matters.

The award was handed down earlier this week in U.S. District Court in
Los Angeles as a default judgment, meaning the defendants never
responded, according to the MPAA.

The defendants could not be reached for comment.

The studios want to amass legal rulings against Web sites offering
illegal copies of films for downloading as they press their campaign
against copyright piracy.

The studios claim illegal copying and distribution of movies on videos
and DVDs cost them more than $3.5 billion annually, and they are
concerned that distributing illegal film copies on the Internet will
cost them billions more.

They have mounted educational and legal efforts aimed to end copyright
piracy, and are now suing individual users who copy and share digital
copies of movies via the Web.

Reuters/VNU

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