I am a film piracy informer
Just before Christmas, I informed on a movie pirate.
That’s a dramatic opening line, isn’t it? It smacks of Ray Liotta’s opening narration from Goodfellas; “As far back as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster.” Nice line.
I however am not a gangster, and I’ve never wanted to be.
I may well have reported one though.
Now I’ve seen movie pirates before over the years – on street corners or outside the doors of an empty shop, their wares laid out on the pavement before them; flat plastic wallets with a colour print, maybe a photocopy of the movie poster if it’s just out in cinemas, or the DVD cover if older, while inside is the unadorned shiny CD ROM holding the duped movie. Or someone’s DVCam home movie of the movie. These people have done a roaring trade down Oxford Street, Holloway Road, even outside my local superstore; hawking their counterfeit DVDs and CDs, blatant in their law-breaking.
But I’d never reported it before. What prompted me this time, what shocked me to action was a first hand encounter with a pirate entering a legitimate business, and hawking their illegal wares to one of the staff, in full view and without a care in the world.
I was in a north London estate agent on the 16th December 2006 with my girlfriend, who was looking to buy a property. I was along for the ride. It was whilst she was being shown the available properties by one of the agents that I spied a woman enter the shop. She was far eastern in appearance, and in her twenties I guess, but that wasn’t what sparked my interest in her or her approach and welcome by the older agent (a man) at the other desk, who was free at the time and appeared to know her. No, my radar went into overdrive only when this woman produced a number of familiar-looking plastic wallets from a carrier bag she held. Absorbed in the property opportunities presented her, my girlfriend was too occupied to see what I continued to observe (as unobtrusively as I could) as the woman proceeded to show the wallets to the agent. Now to be honest, I couldn’t see them clearly, as I was trying not to appear nosey, but they appeared to be just the same kind of wallets containing the illegally copied movies I’ve seen sold before, like I’ve said, on street corners in the city.
The agent asked the woman if the quality was good and she nodded. He bought at least two of them with cash, and the woman left.
Now I must stress the estate agents as a business was not selling pirated goods – though one of its staff certainly appeared to be purchasing it. What staggered my imagination was the confidence and easy air the seller displayed as she came into their office, which, judging by the agent’s reaction to her, implies she’d done many times before. Afterwards it occurred to me if one estate agent lets her ply her trade on their premises, how many more businesses in the area allow her illegal activities through their doors and to carry on under their owners’ noses – or perhaps even with their knowledge?
I decided enough was enough.
So, in the last week before Christmas, I made contact with the Federation of Copyright Theft (FACT), the film industry’s representative trade body that is committed to protecting its interests in the fight against pirate film DVDs and downloads, and I reported what I’d witnessed. Now I don’t know if what I shared is enough for them to take action or even investigate further, but I’m content that, however little it is, I’ve at least done something, I’ve at least made a stand.
“You’re taking it a little personally aren’t you?” you may be asking. “What’s your beef?” My beef? The answer’s simple really.
One of my own movies was pirated.
Back in 2000, before setting up duly noted® I ran my own film production company, and the previous year clinched distribution of the first feature film I’d produced, The Killing Zone. One night I was having a drink with friends, and one of them introduced me to a mate of theirs. During the course of our conversation he learned I was a filmmaker, and told me he’d seen the Zone and complimented me on it. Only then did he reveal he’d watched it by downloading it illegally from a file-sharing site on the web. At the time my fledgling film company hadn’t begun earning revenue from this film, so we were living a hand-to-mouth at best. So for me to suddenly discover my movie was free to download from somewhere on the web – and losing my company money – was of great concern to say the least. More accurately I was floored.
I asked this infringer for the name of that site. He wouldn’t tell me. I patiently tried to explain how we were a small company; it was a low budget film, our first, so we hadn’t the resources to take a financial hit of revenue loss through this illegal copying that the big studios could. The little shit was unmoved and wouldn’t budge. Leaving, he wished me well and said he’d recommend my movie to his friends. Hell, I thought, the bastard would probably hand them the file.
I was powerless to do anything. Short of throttling him there and then for the info, and having the police called in, what else could I do? I didn’t know about FACT then, let alone whether I could report the incident to them. Perhaps I should have wrapped my hands round the infringer’s throat after all, even though I would have ruined my friend’s get-together. My only consolation at the time was that any loss in revenue to me was compensated for by the phone bill the arsehole would have had to clock up downloading the movie.
I think you see now where I’m coming from.
However, that was six years ago. The dial-up age is over, broadband is here, and with it, organised piracy. A blockbuster movie not yet released here can be taped on a DV camera in a fleapit cinema in China, digitised, piped hot through the web and hawked down Oxford Street within a day.
Don’t believe me? Criminal gangs are currently targeting intellectual property piracy in a way never before seen; it has become a lucrative black market. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) estimates organised crime-run commercial music piracy is growing ten times faster than legitimate music businesses.
Across the UK as a whole, the picture forming of IP theft is startling. In its report, “The Cost of Counterfeiting”, the Alliance Against IP Theft (a group of organisations representing over 500 of Europe’s best known brands and creative and retail businesses lobbing for better protection against IP crime) highlights a 2005 survey by its members, and the resulting report estimated that in 2004 the black market in IP piracy and fake goods resulted in a loss to the Exchequer of £2 billion in revenue. Even more important was the revenue loss to the UK industries affected by such IP infringement; valued at £9.2 billion. The survey broke the losses down into sectors:
Music: £0.077 Bn
Leisure software: £0.540 Bn
Manufacturing: £8.000 Bn
Cinema & home entertainment: £0.600 Bn
Total Losses: £9.217 Bn
The AAIPT admits these figures are an estimate, given the difficulties calculating revenue from clandestine criminal activities. Nonetheless the figure is sobering; the survey put it into context by citing credit card fraud in 2004 amounted to just £0.5 billion!
Now imagine what the losses to these industries were in 2006!
“These figures are all very well,” you might say, “but it’s only affecting established industry businesses, the Foxes, MGMs, Paramounts, the EMIs etc.” No it isn’t. Remember my story. It’s affecting creatives just like it did me every day; small timers unconnected to the majors whose losses go unrecorded, with neither the clout nor the resources to take the kind of action against the criminals that the big boys can.
But what you can do – what we can all do – is at least report what you see. You never know what good it will do. It could even help bring down an organised piracy ring.
That’s why if I see my film pirate again, I’ll be reporting her again, as well as any other piracy I witness. For me at least I won’t be standing by any more, I won’t feel powerless like I did back in that bar in 2000.
So I urge you, if you’re a filmmaker or muso, don’t think it won’t happen to you. Chances are it already is. And if you’re worried about your name being revealed – don’t. Reporting piracy can be done anonymously.
So don’t look the other way any more. TAKE ACTION!
Report FILM piracy: complete a Federation of Copyright Theft (FACT) Piracy Report Form or call their hotline on 0845 603 4567
Report MUSIC piracy: email details to the British Phonographic Industry at antipiracy@bpi.co.uk or call them on 020 7803 1300 Remember – it could be your work they’re stealing!
© 2007 Julian Boote All rights reserved.
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This article may contain the personal views of its author which are not the views of the duly noted® Ltd. unless specifically stated.