“Think before you buy”
by Annika Pham
In a joint statement, The UK Film Council and the UK Minister of Culture, Estelle Morris, have warned local consumers not to be tempted to buy pirated DVDs and videos as Christmas presents.
“Piracy is the biggest threat to our creative industries, and film is at particular risk”, said the Hon Estelle Morris. The government, the UK Film Council and the British film industry are working together to crack down on the problem, but consumers have a crucial role to play. That’s why we’re sending out a clear message: think before you buy - piracy is theft plain and simple. It doesn’t just effect the profit margins of huge Hollywood studios, it impacts on the jobs of everyone working in film, from soundmen to scriptwriters”.
In the UK, where a quarter of households now own a DVD player, DVD sales in particular are very popular and the market has increased by 111% since 2001. But market growth in piracy has also increased and cost around £400m to the UK film industry in 2002. So far this year, over 1 million pirated DVDs have been seized by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), including counterfeited copies of Matrix Revolution, available at car boot sales and street markets, two days after the films’ theatrical release.
A new anti-piracy taskforce, chaired by the FC’s board director and leading independent distributor, Nigel Green, is currently exploring ways of combating the trading in pirated film copies in the UK.
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