WWW- Meet the movie industry's Public Enemy No. 1.
A 63-year-old Brooklyn grandmother is being sued by Hollywood for allegedly downloading a pirated version of the Adam Sandler film "The Longest Yard."
Janice McBride's brassy response is right out of "Big Momma's House."
"Why are they going after an old lady living in the ghetto?" McBride told the Daily News yesterday from her East New York home.
"How can they charge me with something I didn't do?" she said. "The movie they're talking about is absolute garbage anyway. I don't even like Adam Sandler as an actor."
In civil suits filed this week in Brooklyn Federal Court, the Park Ave. lawyers for Paramount and Columbia Pictures are threatening McBride and two other defendants with fines of up to $150,000.
The suit draws the distinction that McBride "illegally swapped" the huge video file through file-sharing software.
"I have no money to fight them," said McBride, who earns less than $30,000 as a teacher's aide at Public School 150 in Brooklyn.
Her husband, Warren, is a retired driver for District Council 37 and collects a pension.
A spokeswoman for the Motion Picture Association of America said the industry launched an offensive against Internet film pirates in late 2004, filing several hundred copyright infringement suits in federal courts nationwide since then. There have been dozens filed in courts in the metropolitan area.
Spokeswoman Michelle Greeno said MPAA investigators subpoena the suspected pirates' Internet service providers to make their case.
"We don't have evidence that they downloaded the films, but we do know they have these films on their computers," she said.
The music industry also has been aggressively tracking down Internet pirates who illegally download songs, costing record companies millions of dollars in lost revenues.
Greeno said she didn't know the average settlement for the film piracy suits.
But a review of similar cases filed in federal court in Brooklyn showed one defendant charged with possessing three flicks settled for $6,000 and several others were dismissed.
McBride invited a reporter to access her desktop computer to show she did not have a copy of "The Longest Yard." The film wasn't there, but there were two songs from the remake of the Burt Reynolds vehicle.
She acknowledges that her 16-year-old grandson lives with her and has access to the computer. He was not home, but McBride said he "swore to her" he didn't download the film.
Efforts to reach Paula Rodriguez of Brooklyn, who is accused of swapping an unauthorized copy of "Kung Fu Hustle," and Robert Ferrandino of North Babylon, L.I., who allegedly had a hot copy of "House of Wax," were unsuccessful.
