Film theft in the UK - Future of Copyright

3 Introduction
Piracy has long been a major cause for concern
for the global film industry. Since the
appearance of the videocassette in the 1970s,
the illegal manufacture and sale of pirated
movie content has increased enormously.
However, while until recently movie piracy has
been a ‘physical’ activity using analogue
technology, the digital revolution has triggered
a quantum leap in the means of copying and
disseminating copyrighted works. With the
advent of the Internet and the accelerated
development of ‘off-the-shelf’ digital
entertainment and PC technologies, it is now
easier than ever to illegally copy and distribute
film content. This applies both to copying by
large-scale criminal organisations and to illegal
copying by consumers.
In short, the digital age, has brought with it a
startling array of threats and challenges. If
these threats and challenges are not addressed
they could have extremely serious
consequences for the film business, and for the
diversity of film culture, across the globe. To
this end, this report evaluates the task ahead
for the UK film industry, as it squares up to the
challenge posed by film theft in the early 21st
century.
There are five key sections to this report:
• An examination of the current climate of film
theft as it impacts the UK film industry, with a
special focus on the emerging threats from
online piracy and Internet filesharing.
• An assessment of the measures available to
combat piracy in the UK; particular attention is
given to legal and enforcement methods. This
section also includes examination of possible
security measures, education and consumer
awareness initiatives, and the development of
new business models for the industry.
• A review of consumer attitudes and
behaviour, and how the film industry might
respond to the challenges of balancing the
rights of citizens and consumers with those of
content providers.
• Preliminary recommendations on how the
UK government, film industry and other
stakeholders in the film sector, such as the UK
Film Council and the Federation Against
Copyright Theft (FACT), can work together to
deal with the growth of film piracy.
• An appendix which includes an analysis of
the music industry’s experience – an industry
that has suffered significant losses from both
physical piracy and file-sharing over the
Internet because of a failure to act in a timely
fashion.
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