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Around 66,000 people work in film and cinema in the UK. More widely, our creative industries as a whole employ 1.8m people, from writers and designers, via set builders and special effects technicians, to programmers to printers. Everyone working in the creative industries depends on trademarks, patents or copyrights to safeguard their investments.
Copyright is a way of enabling people and companies to earn a fair living from their creativity and innovation. Such systems, which exist all over the world, benefit the public as well as the industry because, if there was no protection, the industry could not continue releasing new works, especially in today's digital age, without fear of widespread piracy and theft.
As well as contributing to the UK economy, the film industry is an influential part of UK culture, too. Here at Focus, we're proud of our film industry. There's nothing to be proud of in trying to rip it off.
If you buy a dodgy DVD, do you know for sure where your cash is going? The Metropolitan Police in London has a dedicated film piracy unit that traces vast sums of money to organised crime networks operating in the UK and overseas.
Film piracy is increasingly recognised as a crime of growing national significance. It's punishable by up to 10 years' imprisonment or unlimited fines. That's up to 10 years' imprisonment or unlimited fines. Even though the film industry is taking more measures to try to prevent illegal copying from happening in the first place, in today's world digital copies can obviously be made and circulated quickly and cheaply.
Film piracy in the UK generates hundreds of millions of pounds every year for criminals. It can sour the livelihoods of many people working in the industry and poison the quality of life in local communities because it is so often linked to other forms of crime, such as people smuggling, drugs trafficking and fraud.
The biggest and best thing you can do is not to buy or watch stolen copies of films.
The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) is an industry body, established in the UK in 1983, that works to protect the film and TV industry from copyright and trademark infringements. Check out for yourself the information and advice on its website: www.fact-uk.org.uk
www.piracyisacrime.com
www.filmeducation.org
www.filmeducation.org
Thank you for supporting the UK's film industry. |
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A genuine DVD:
• Cannot be bought from fly pitchers, street sellers or door-to-door sales persons;
• Will always be classified by the British Board of Film Classification (U, PG, 12, 15, 18) – check out the advice at www.bbfc.co.uk
• Will have a film company hologram on the inner sleeve;
• Will most likely not be on sale at open air markets, car
boot sales, online auctions or dubious looking websites! Remember, if it seems too cheap to be true, it’s
probably a counterfeit copy and you’re being deceived.
You won’t be able to buy a DVD of a film that is still showing in UK cinemas or hasn’t even been released in cinemas yet. Films are made available in many different formats and media, so people can choose when and where to watch them, but an initial release in cinemas is well established to give new films the most effective public launch.
Today there are many options for you to buy or rent films online as well as in stores, and there are more and more websites where you can legitimately download films. Of course, you can also book cinema tickets online, and Focus urges you all to catch films where they look and sound their best – up on the big screen. |
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