Chris just reminded me to post something about this.

The movie industry announced yesterday it will file its first wave of lawsuits later this month against those it alleges are illegally sharing copyrighted films on the Internet, joining the music industry in its fight against piracy.

The Motion Picture Association of America, which represents major Hollywood studios such as Sony Pictures Entertainment and Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures Corp., plans to file about 200 suits against computer users who put illegally obtained movies on Internet file-sharing services for other users to download and watch for free.

"We haven't suffered the damage that the music industry has, but we needed some form of preemptive activity," the MPAA's new president, Dan Glickman, said in an interview yesterday.

For years, we've been hearing that the motion picture industry wouldn't make the same mistakes as the recording industry. In one rather depressing move, the motion picture industry proves they have learned nothing, that they will act as lazily and shamefully as the recording industry.

They moved slowly to provide access to films online. They allowed an online film-sharing community to develop. Now they'll try to slice off the hydra's head with the sharp edge of a law suit. But it is too late.

If the motion picture industry wanted to combat piracy, they'd target the Asian duplication factories that have been turning out bad copies of films for decades. Instead, like corporate cowards, they'll bring American teenagers to court. They'll attack the very people who want to wach what they create.

Every day, it seems more and more like the time to look for a new job.