Movie industry sues eBay sellers

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is suing nine eBay sellers in eight US states as part of a pre-Christmas crackdown.

But one of the sellers has claimed that he is doing nothing more than reselling DVDs bought from 'power sellers' based in Asia.

Todd Aspinwall, from Connecticut, said that he had no idea why the Hollywood movie industry association chose to go after him.

He told the San Jose Mercury News that he resells about 200 DVDs a month which he buys from bigger eBay sellers who advertise their goods as legal.

But according to the MPAA, Aspinwall has sold 414 pirated copies of movies in the last 30 days.

"All the DVDs I sell are already in the stores and I thought were pressed legally. If they were not then why don't they go for the guys who sell them in Malaysia?" he told the paper.

But going after the smaller players sends a message to the bigger players, according to the MPAA.

The association contends that 95 per cent of online auction sales of pirated movies occur on eBay - which supports the MPAA action - and that such activity has doubled this year.