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The Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA), which represents all the major studios, would not say how many suits it had filed against networks that use BitTorrent or eDonkey software.

One such service - www.lokitorrent.com - has already been successfully closed by a federal court following the first round of lawsuits. Its website's homepage now carries a message from the MPAA, headed 'You can click but you can't hide'.

It goes on to say, 'There are websites that provide legal downloads. This is not one of them.

'This website has been permanently shut down by court order because it facilitates the illegal downloading of copyrighted motion pictures. The illegal downloading of motion pictures robs thousands of honest, hard-working people of their livelihood, and stifles creativity. Illegally downloading movies from sites such as these without proper authorisation violates the law, is theft, and is not anonymous. Stealing movies leaves a trail. The only way not to get caught is to stop.'

In all, the MPAA has successfully closed down around 40 per cent of offending websites. Those which have been targeted include four which charge users a fee in return for helping them to find movies to download. The

'With our first round of lawsuits and legal actions against these individuals who facilitate the theft of movies online, often for their own personal gain, we were able to seriously hamper the traffic on these sites or completely shut them down,' said John G Malcolm, senior vice president and director, Worldwide Anti-Piracy Operations, MPAA. 'That was one step - and a successful one - against these individuals, and todayÕs announcement should demonstrate that we plan to be equally vigilant against anyone caught operating one of these websites. And as these actions prove, we will catch them.'

The MPAA estimates that 'piracy', chiefly through illegal copying of DVDs, costs the US movie industry some $3bn every year. That figure does not include the effect of Internet file sharing, 'due to the difficulty in calculating Internet piracy losses', although the organisation says that, 'it is safe to assume Internet losses cause untold additional damages to the industry.' And it is equally safe to say that the impact will increase as broadband becomes more widespread and at faster speeds.