Video Game Firms Sue Over Online Piracy

A dozen of the biggest video game publishers jointly filed a series of lawsuits against four Web site operators this week for allegedly distributing pirated software over the Internet.

The complaints, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, allege that Dashiell Ponce De Leon of Houston, John Sterling of Beaumont, Texas, Byron Beck of Monrovia and Kuei Lin Lo of Amherst, Mass., made copies of 39 game titles, posted them on various Web sites and encouraged visitors to download the games.

The defendants could not be reached for comment.

Among the plaintiffs are Disney Enterprises Inc., Electronic Arts Inc., Microsoft Corp., Activision Inc. and Interplay Entertainment Corp.

The hard-line approach taken by game publishers mirrors efforts by the music-recording industry to stamp out swapping of copyrighted songs via Internet services such as Napster. Unlike Napster, however, these sites let gamers download software from a central server operated by the sites. Napster facilitates peer-to-peer swapping of digital songs stored on computers operated by individual visitors.

Ric Hirsch, senior vice president of the Interactive Digital Software Assn. in Washington, estimates that game companies lose $3 billion in sales each year from software piracy.