Hollywood studios go after two piracy sites

By Leslie Simmons
Reuters
Friday, September 28, 2007; 3:08 AM

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The Motion Picture Assn. of America has filed suit against two Web sites that it claims are allowing Internet users to view pirated films, many of which are still in theaters.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday on behalf of the major studios, seeks to shutter cinematube.net (http://cinematube.net) and ssupload.com (http://ssupload.com) from further infringing on the copyrights of the MPAA members.

The sites feature links to hundreds of titles, including such recent releases as "Resident Evil: Extinction," "The Brave One" and "Good Luck Chuck."

A "Who Is" domain search of the sites indicate both are registered as private, meaning the information on ownership and administrative contacts are not disclosed.

The domain search also indicated cinematube.net's servers are located in Malaysia. The site averages more than 24,000 unique users each day who view more than 85,000 pages of content.

Servers for ssupload.com are located in Arizona and average 55,000 unique daily visitors who view more than 190,000 pages of content per day.

"We are putting illegal Web operators on notice that they are not above the law and will face serious consequences for their activities," said John Malcolm, executive vp and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations at the MPAA.

The MPAA estimates that the industry lost $18.2 billion in 2005.