Film theft in the UK - Future of Copyright

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successfully stop suspects trying to record
movies being screened in their cinemas.
However, whether or not these measures have
been sufficient is open to debate. One need
only look back at the mass of evidence
suggesting that movie titles are appearing
more and more, earlier and earlier, on P2P
networks to question whether enough is being
done (see Chapter 4 for an analysis of P2P
movie filesharing).
The UK film industry needs to conduct a
thorough review of security risks and potential
sources of ‘internal leaks’ in the preproduction,
production, post-production and
distribution process. Such a review could draw
on lessons from the research undertaken by
AT&T (discussed in chapter 4, ‘Sources of
internet piracy’).
The Film Distributors’ Association (FDA) has
already undertaken work in this area through
its film print working group that now includes
the UK Film Council. For some time this group
has been working towards improved
procedures and an extensively revised Film Print
and Digital Disk Management Protocol was
issued in July 2004.
Controlling content in the
digital domain
There are several types of technologies that can
help control copyright content in the digital
domain. The motivation is to keep content
secure when it is stored on a device and when
it is transferred in a digital format between
devices. Ideally, these solutions should enhance
the business choices open to the rights owner
as to how to exploit their content, while at the
same time maximising the control, choice and
convenience for the consumer. This is often
referred to as Digital Rights Management
(DRM). However, many of the issues involved in
the deployment of these systems have been
contentious, resulting in lengthy disputes
between the content owners, regulators and
consumer hardware manufacturers (the latter
often presenting their case as the voice of the
consumer via organisations like the Home
Recording Rights Coalition).
New digital TV sets and digital video devices
launched into the US market are increasingly
incorporating secure interfaces that allow
content to be securely transferred from one
device to another. As far as recording is
concerned, content owners and digital
broadcasters have the facility to apply varying
‘usage rules’ to content travelling over the
digital connections. The three basic levels are:
Copy Freely: broadcast signals that are
provided to viewers free of charge can be
recorded by digital machines much like VCRs
do at present.
Copy Once: Pay-TV subscription programming
such as the BSkyB movie channels in the UK, or
HBO and Showtime in the US, can be set to
only be recordable once for archiving purposes,
but preventing additional copies from being
made.
Copy Never: Aimed at pay-per-view (PPV) and
video-on-demand (VoD) service providers,
programmes can be set so as to not to be
recordable by a digital home recorder.
There are many contentious issues still being
debated, particularly in the US. These include
the proposal to protect digital free TV from
unauthorised redistribution via the Internet
using a so-called Broadcast Flag. This would
insert a trigger signal in digital broadcasts that
could be used to limit the recording and
retransmission capability of free TV
programming. The controversial dimension is
that consumers have been used to freely being
able to record free TV programming and this
technology would permit broadcasters to limit
that in the future in the interests of preventing
further unauthorised redistribution.
Another divisive proposal being aired in the US
is that to allow so-called ‘downresolution’ to
limit the dangers of recording HDTV content