TV: Government given five-year TV and film piracy warning | Technology | guardian.co.uk

 

Government given five-year TV and film piracy warning

TV: Government given five-year TV and film piracy warning | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Industries will fade into insignificance if more is not done to stamp out illegal copying, trade body warns

A still from an advert emphasising how cinema ticket and DVD sales help fund the film industry

The UK's film and TV industries will fade into insignificance in five years unless the government rapidly steps up its anti-piracy efforts, a leading trade body warned today.

In a survey of more than 30 directors of TV and film companies, the Industry Trust found that 94% believe the damage cannot be repaired without stronger support from government and more action from internet service providers, who have been accused by some critics of failing to act against web users who illegally download audio and video files.

The trust's director general, Liz Bales, said that although the film industry is not suffering as much as the music sector, the proportion of illegal film and TV content distributed globally online is heading towards 90% of the totall, as experienced by the music industry.

In 2007, 95m films were downloaded illegally in the UK, compared with just 158,000 legally, according to the trust.

The government's interim Digital Britain report has laid out proposals for improving broadband speeds across the UK, which will make it possible to download entire films in a few minutes.

Commissioned by the UK Film Council, the trust's survey also found that 91% think the industry needs help encouraging consumers to use legal online content services, while 60% think ISPs need to play a bigger role in supporting legal content initiatives.

"If the current framework hasn't changed in five years, the UK industry will have become insignificant," Bales said.

"This is a wakeup call for government as well as industry. Digital Britain proposed creating a massive hub in the UK of innovative content creators and publishers, and net-savvy civilians backed up by digital literacy," she added.

"But in opening the floodgates for business, we need to make sure we are not enabling illegal businesses. We need to clear the undergrowth, in the government's own language."

The survey coincides with the Industry Trust's conference today, which will explore specific proposals for encouraging takeup of legal online content services while discouraging illegal downloads.

Proposals include watermarking legal content, more research into legal alternatives and increased collaboration to limit the availability of illegal content. Media firms also want to discuss bringing more legal alternatives into the market.

Bales said that positive moves for the industry will include the launch of the NBC Universal and Fox web TV service Hulu in the UK, which is expected later this year, a new streaming service by Lovefilm and uptake of FindAnyFilm, which has built up 1 million users in the 10 weeks since it launched.

She added that the industry is moving away from the anti-piracy campaigns based around social stigma, such as "Knockoff Nigel", with a more positive campaign called "You make the Movies" launched earlier this month emphasising that DVD sales and cinema tickets are part of the funding process for high quality content.

The trust has also supported a new site called Find Any Film that aggregates to legal download services, cinema listings and archive information, but is looking to the government for significant regulatory support.

Bales said the model should be similar to that of Ofcom, which helps to police the largely-self regulatory media industry.

"The film industry is not interested in end user litigation," she added. "Consumers deserve consistency and to know what the framework is. ISPs need to be more proactive in identifying those people infringing copyright and have a simple, measured system of graduated response."

Bales said that despite the attention given to the Pirate Bay, the site was "not particularly innovative" but had used the same principle as Grokster and Kazaa to create "a very lucrative business".

The Pirate Bay was not concerned with the quality of content, the value for consumers or in creating a business model, she added.

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TV: Government given five-year TV and film piracy warning | Technology | guardian.co.uk