The Motion Picture Association of America, (MPAA) on behalf of the major Hollywood movie studios filed lawsuits yesterday against YouTVpc.com and Peekvid.com ? websites that facilitate copyright infringement on the Internet, according to the organization.

MPAA claims that sites like YouTVpc and Peekvid contribute to and profit from massive copyright infringement by identifying, posting, organizing, and indexing links to infringing content found on the Internet that consumers can then view on-demand by visiting these sites.

"The sole purpose of these sites is to disseminate content that has been illegally reproduced and distributed. They are a one-stop shop for copyright infringement. These lawsuits should serve as a warning to other aspiring movie theft 'entrepreneurs' that they are not above the law and will face serious consequences for their activities. Profiting from the theft of other people?s creative works is illegal and must be stopped," said John Malcolm, Executive Vice President and Director of Worldwide Anti-Piracy Operations for the MPAA.

Peekvid - whose servers are located in San Antonio, Texas - averages over 53,000 unique users per day who view over 184,000 pages of content. YouTVpc ? whose servers are located in Scottsdale, Arizona - averages more than 6,000 unique daily visitors who view over 21,000 pages of content per day.

Civil lawsuits were filed against YouTVpc and Peekvid in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles for damages and injunctive relief for violations under the United States Copyright Act of 1976.