Government urged to act on film piracy

Monday, 13 December 2004 12:00 AM

More must be done to clamp down on organised criminals involved in film piracy, according to the UK Film Council.

It estimates that the market in the UK for pirate DVDs will exceed £1 billion within three years, and is currently between £400 and £500 million. Far from being a harmless activity, the Film Council stresses that there are strong links to organised crime.

Among the measures recommended are criminalising using a camcorder in the cinema, a crackdown on car boot sales and developing ways for consumers to legally download films from the internet.

UK Film Council chief executive John Woodward, said: "Film piracy is the single largest threat facing the UK film industry today. We have to act now to tackle this escalating problem.

"Film pirates are not harmless 'Del Boy' characters, they are professional criminals with links to organised crime and drugs. The pirating of films on DVDs or the internet is not a victimless crime - counterfeiting threatens future film production and in the end it is our culture, our economy, and the jobs of thousands of people that will suffer."

Addressing consumers who might be tempted to buy such products, he said they are "not only wasting hard-earned cash on products which often have terrible sound and picture quality, they are funding criminals and putting people out of work.

"As well as the Government taking the right steps to crack down on counterfeiters, it is important that the film industry learns the lessons of music piracy, and responds quickly to technological change by providing legitimate ways for consumers to download films from the internet. Only by working together can we deal with this menace effectively."

It points out that both the Matrix Reloaded and Finding Nemo were available for illegal download on the web within one day of release.

Key recommendations include giving trading standards officers the power to close down open air markets where pirate DVDs are regularly sold, making recording films via camcorder in cinemas a criminal as opposed to civil offence, and introducing harsher penalties for copyright violations to increase the financial risk to film pirates.

Its report will now be submitted to the Creative Industries Forum - led by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, for consideration.

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