UPDATED
As posted here on BoingBoing yesterday morning, the MPAA is expected to announce details today involving 200 or more lawsuits against individuals accused of sharing copyrighted movie files online. "Hundreds of lawsuits a month" are anticipated to come out of the extended campaign. Defamer has an update:
New MPAA Head Pirate Hunter in Charge Dan Glickman will announce the opening volley of lawsuits later today. Quick, everyone uninstall BitTorrent and throw your computers into the nearest body of water to avoid their wrath! At least Glickman seems to be paying lip-service to a somewhat less bloodthirsty approach than his predecessor, Jack Valenti. [snip from news story]
Glickman said "a holistic approach" was needed to combat piracy, including educational efforts, criminal prosecution and lawsuits against infringers. "You need the stick and you need the carrot both," he said. "You can't just have one without the other."
Glickman took a reflective pause before explaining, "See, the way it works is we dangle the carrot, then when a file-sharer reaches for the it, we wiggle the stick so they know what we're packing, We ask them, 'Are you sure you want to do that? Didn't you see the stick?' And if they insist on going for the carrot, we beat them to death with the stick, you know, just until we can see a little brain through the skull. That's why you need the stick and the carrot both. It's really hard to kill someone with a carrot."
Link. No confirmation yet on whether or not the "holistic approach" will involve (a) cramming acupuncture needles into suspected pirates' WLAN routers, (b) pouring homeopathic tinctures all over their keyboards, or (c) killing them softly with tofurkey.
The LA Times notes that Disney may not participate:
At least five of the seven big studios that belong to the MPAA have agreed to join the effort, which could generate hundreds of lawsuits a month. Among the potential holdouts is Walt Disney Co., according to one person familiar with the association's plans.
Link to LA Times article (reg required)
UPDATE: The other shoe drops. Link to MPAA's formal announcement of filesharer lawsuits, which took place earlier today at UCLA.
