The MPAA is now filing lawsuits against websites that link to, but don’t host, pirated movies.

In federal court, the MPAA filed suit against pullmylink.com (which has since been taken down) , because the site “promotes and profits from copyright infringement”

From Reuters:

The campaign against sites that link to, but do not host, illegal content has raised some eyebrows with critics asking why the association doesn’t go after the host sites or Internet search engines such as Google.com, which owns video sharing site YouTube.com.

“Is the message that it’s less criminal to host illegal content on YouTube than it is to link to it from a site such as TV Links?” Guardian technology columnist Jack Schofield wrote in the wake of the MPAA-directed raid on TV Links in October. “In future, do I risk being thrown in the slammer for linking directly to a YouTube video?”

The MPAA, which represents Hollywood’s major studios in government affairs, has obtained settlements or resolutions in the six other cases against Web aggregators of video content. It plans to continue its aggressive pursuit of new sites using “a variety of techniques” to force them to hand back profits made from advertising, anti-piracy director John Malcolm said.

Movie Piracy is a $18.2 billion market.