Despite the entertainment industry's legal victories this year over Internet companies accused of aiding widespread copyright infringement, the brisk trade of copyrighted music and movies continues unabated.
That is why this year the industry is likely to focus on a group that has so far remained on the edges of the battle against Internet piracy: the pirates themselves.
Prosecuting their own consumers is a risky prospect for entertainment companies. Before the Internet, it was almost inconceivable that the recording industry would charge an individual with copyright infringement for making copies of a CD for a few friends, though the practice was widespread.
Even after it became apparent that millions of "friends" were copying one another's material over the Internet, the entertainment industry preferred to pursue companies like Napster that served as hubs for the sharing of music and movies.
Several Hollywood studios have already filed lawsuits against MusicCity.com and other file-trading services whose popularity soared after Napster was shut down by a federal judge. But even with a legal ruling in the industry's favor, those sites may be harder to eradicate.
Their technology is less centralized than Napster's and may not depend on the companies themselves to continue being used. If they are blocked, analysts say, others will take their place.
"I would not be surprised to see a couple of well-placed lawsuits against consumers over the next year," said Eric Scheirer, a music industry analyst with Forrester Research. "It's not companies doing this; it's hobbyists in their garage. To stop hobbyists requires a whole new level of copyright enforcement."
Before pursuing individual file traders in court, however, the entertainment industry is trying to persuade computer and consumer electronics manufacturers to incorporate technology into their devices that would detect pirated software and prevent consumers from playing it.
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