The seven member companies of the MPAA, joined by DreamWorks and New Line, have agreed not to send out screeners during the upcoming awards season, MPAA chief Jack Valenti announced Tuesday. Video and DVD screeners -- mailed to Academy members as well as guild members and awards groups like the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. -- have become a staple of the awards season process. Proponents of screeners argue that they allow members of awards groups such as the Academy to sample a wider group of films, thereby putting smaller specialty releases on a more equal footing with wide-release studio films. But, concerned that the widespread distribution of DVD screeners is contributing to film piracy, Valenti has convinced the major studios, along with their subsidiary specialized film divisions, to go along with the ban. He defended the ban Tuesday as part of "a determined commitment to combat digital piracy and to save movie jobs in the future."