COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Three film studios have filed a series of federal
lawsuits to stop what they say is the illegal sharing of movies online.
The lawsuits filed in federal court Thursday allege the illegal distribution
of the films "Hitch," "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," "Good Night and Good Luck" and
others.
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc. and two
subsidiaries of Sony Pictures -- Columbia Pictures Industries Inc. and Screen
Gems, Inc. -- filed the simultaneous lawsuits against four Ohio residents.
The lawsuit alleges the four used online media distribution systems to
disseminate unauthorized copies of movies.
The systems cited in the lawsuits are BitComet, iMesh and KaZaA.
The "infringements allow Defendant and others to unlawfully obtain and
distribute for free unauthorized copyrighted works that Plaintiff spends
millions of dollars to create and/or distribute," the lawsuits say.
Messages were left with the Motion Pictures Association of America and with
the attorney representing the film studios in the Ohio lawsuits. A spokesman for
Sony Pictures was not immediately familiar with the lawsuit.
Phone numbers could not be found for three of the four individuals named in
the lawsuits. A message was left with a fourth individual, John Mitchell, of
suburban Columbus.
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. alleges Mitchell used iMesh to illegally
distribute "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" on July 9, 2005.
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