The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has filed lawsuits against the Web sites YouTVpc.com and Peekvid.com, alleging they offered links to pirated movies and television programs.
Filed last week in Los Angeles Federal District Court, the lawsuits are the first targeting Web sites that link to, but don’t store, pirated video content. The sites provide visitors with links to other sites holding movies the MPAA alleges often violate their members’ copyright.
“We’re not violating any law,” Billy Duran, YouTVpc’s co-founder, told “Bloomberg News.” “To say that infringes on the rights of every Internet user.��� A message on the Peekvid.com site said it “does not contain any content on its site, but is merely an index of available links on the Internet.”
The MPAA said virtually all of the materials provided by the Web sites are illegal copies of films or TV shows owned by member companies of the association, including the Walt Disney Company, News Corp. and Viacom.
Both sites are advertising-supported. Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered TorrentSpy.com to provide the MPAA with user logs of the BitTorrent site.
