Investigator Will Train Cinema Staff
As Pirates of the Caribbean premieres in the UK, another kind of pirate is making preparations to rip off the film's producers. DVD copies of the new film are expected to be on the streets within two days, but the industry is fighting back. Now, UK film distributors have agreed to fund a "cinema investigator" to tackle pirates who film new releases direct from the silver screen to illegal DVDs.
A counterfeit DVD operation being run from an Edinburgh city centre flat has been smashed in a raid by police and trading standards officers. The flat in the Marchmont area was believed to be the centre of an illegal operation producing pirate films and computer games. Movies and games with a value of more than £10,000 were seized from the property, along with computer hardware.
Scots
are the biggest customers for pirate DVDs in the UK, with one in three
owning counterfeit discs. Around 25% of consumers admit they would buy
illegal copies of Hollywood movies and TV shows if they could save
money. More than a third claimed not to know piracy was illegal despite
regular police raids on market stalls.
"once someone has purchased a great deal
of protected music for an iPod then if their next player is not
manufactured by Apple this music could become inaccessible to
them."
The All Party Internet Group's public inquiry into Digital Rights Management (the software which dictates how you can and cannot use a piece of digital content) today published their 30 page report. The UK government group has made recomendations that music and video purchased with DRM should be completely transparant about the system and limitations that a work is encoded with. The proposals call for a ban on enforcing mandatory DRM. Furthermore, in cases such as Sony's Rootkit issue (where copies of Sony CDs installed software onto users hardware which opened security holes and also stipulated unworkable levels of constraints on the user) the manufacturer could face prosecution.
A security guard who used hundreds of false identities to sell pirate DVDs on an internet auction site has been jailed for six months.
An investigation by the Federation Against Copyright Theft and eBay revealed the distribution network involved the United States and Australia as well as the UK.
Copyright laws governing the UK’s creative industries are outdated and need to be radically overhauled to fit in with today’s modern and digital society, says the National Consumer Council. The NCC declaration is targeted at the former editor of The Financial Times, Andrew Gowers, who is currently reviewing the UK’s intellectual property framework.
An English court has ruled that DragonSlayer Films must get clearance from Experience Hendrix to obtain rights for any Hendrix film it wishes to make. The court has apparently found in favour of the late musician's family, apparently shutting down prospects for a Jimi Hendrix biographical film.
Hollywood's major movie studios lost $6.1 billion (£3.3 billion) in revenues in 2005 to illegal videos, DVDs and Internet downloads, which is about 75 percent higher than previous estimates, the studios' representative said.
The biggest pirate DVD factory ever to be discovered in the UK has been closed down, stopping an operation that could churn out 60,000 illegal DVDs every day. Altogether 300 film titles were discovered, from the latest animation feature, Ice Age 2 – due in UK cinemas tomorrow - to pornography films featuring bestiality.