Press Release

HAWAII, May 29, 2002

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

InternetMovies.com Sues Hollywood

 

On April 25, 2002 a lawsuit was filed against the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, is the result of the wrongful shutdown of Michael Rossi’s web site, InternetMovies.com. The allegations against the MPAA include, interference with contractual obligations, interference with prospective economic advantage, as well as libel and defamation.

 

The allegations against the MPAA stem from a series of cease and desist orders issued in March and April of 2001. In the cease and desist orders, the MPAA wrongfully accused InternetMovies.com of  distributing unauthorized copies of copyrighted motion pictures. The cease and desist orders effectively shut down http://www.InternetMovies.com for a temporary amount of time. This temporary shut down had a negative effect on the business proceedings and reputation of InternetMovies.com.

 

Internetmovies.com does not and has never distributed unauthorized copyrighted motion pictures. InternetMovies.com was registered and launched in 1997 by entrepreneur, Michael J. Rossi, who wanted to share his interest in movies, both blockbuster and independent, with Internet users. He shared this interest by providing information to visitors, such as articles about the movie industry and a graphic directory that linked visitors to movie trailers. The graphic directory is an assemblage of movie poster icons that, when individually clicked, connect the visitor to the registered movie site of interest, or site which features a trailer. Rossi has many satisfied visitors, he continues to maintain InternetMovies.com by scanning news for articles and updating his movie trailer links. He presently has 30,000 members, and boasts 60 million hits per year.

 

It is unlikely that InternetMovies.com is the only business to be unfairly damaged by the MPAA’s unfounded claims of wrongdoing.  According to Jack Valenti, President of the MPAA , "As a part of our copyright enforcement efforts, we are using Ranger, a sophisticated search engine, to track down movies illegitimately on the Web. Once Ranger sniffs out an illegal site, we send 'cease and desist' letters to the Internet Service Provider whose customer is engaging in the infringing activity or, where possible, to the site itself. In 2001, we dispatched 54,000 such letters to 1,680 ISPs around the world." In its crusade the MPAA  falsely accused InternetMovies.com of distributing unauthorized copyrighted movies. To prevent false accusations, the MPAA should not solely rely on search engine software. Instead, they should rely on a human based legal review of any suspect web sites.

 

By filing this lawsuit against the MPAA, Michael Rossi wants to show that the small entrepreneur can stand up to Hollywood and its unfair business practices.