None of the Recording Industry Association of America’s 532 January file-sharing lawsuits were against Boston University students, BU Associate Council Robert Smith said this week.
But students may not want to breathe a sigh of relief just yet because the Motion Picture Association of America may begin similar action against movie sharers soon, MPAA Vice President of Public Affairs Richard Taylor said Wednesday.
The MPAA, which is also having problems with illegal downloads, is trying to first educate the public and then resort to suing, Taylor said. The practice is not yet as widespread as song downloads, he said.
“We need to speak to people before downloading movies becomes commonplace,” he said. “With music, it’s become almost second nature to download, so we want to make sure people think twice before doing this with motion pictures.”
Taylor said the MPAA is running trailers before movies in theaters, touring college campuses and sending letters to universities urging them to include a clause about the illegality of downloading movies in their computer user agreements. In order to secure tonights campus screening of the movie