MPAA to sue!

From Reuters,
Updated: 3:51 p.m. ET Nov. 4, 2004

"LOS ANGELES - Movie studios and the Motion Picture Association of America said Thursday they would sue individuals suspected of illegally distributing movies over the Internet. The music industry has led the way with such lawsuits targeting major traders of song files who use Kazaa and other programs to swap songs on the Web. The MPAA, the trade group representing Hollywood’s major studios, said its members would launch suits claiming copyright violation on Nov. 16. The civil suits will seek to stop trading as well as damages of up to $30,000 per film, the MPAA said, adding that damages could reach $150,000 if the infringement was deemed willful."

Is this file-swapping backlash starting to get a little ridiculous? What 16-year-old kid is going to get sued for $30,000 now? (There goes college…) Let me give the MPAA a better idea: after you walk out of a movie, how about having a place where you can buy the DVD right there in the theater? The DVD could be sold for less than the DVD that would come out later in the stores, because this DVD would be just the movie itself. Later, a second DVD could be sold containing bonus features like the director’s commentary, deleted scenes, trailers, etc. This would allow a film to be sold, not once, or twice, but, potentially 3 times to the same person (theater, $5 gotta-have-it-now DVD, $20 collector’s edition).

This, of course, wouldn’t eliminate file-swapping, but it would help get the MPAA a piece of the action, and people would get what they want, too - a DVD sooner rather than later. Granted, not all file-swappers are trading the bootleg, handheld-camera-in-the-theater DVDs…but many do. However, trading those crappy copies, replete with people sneezing and walking in front of the camera, would lose its tempation once there was a "real" version available for the low, low price of $5.00 at your local cinemaplex.