Copyright watchdog steps up the fight against film pirates

Last week’s appointment of a cinema investigator to tackle the illegal recording of films in cinemas comes at a time when piracy is soaring to record levels.

Advances in technology are making it easier than ever to copy films and distribute pirated material.

Gartner research vice president Mike McGuire says criminals are using a combination of new technology to copy material, which is the most significant contributor to the increase in film piracy.

‘It is the application of technology rather than the technology itself that is responsible for the rise,’ he said. ‘But over the past few years, new digital tools have made it easier to copy, burn, download and distribute films around the world.’

McGuire says the proliferation of broadband and increased download speeds have opened new avenues of distribution.

He says film distributors must now make use of the internet to counter growing levels of piracy.

‘Peer-to-peer (P2P) technology will become increasingly attractive to distributors because it is an efficient way to move big files,’ he said.

‘Maturity will take a while, but Warner Bros has already signed a deal with BitTorrent to download films legally.’

The Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact), which has recruited the cinema investigator, says it is evaluating and evolving its use of technology continuously to counter piracy threats.

Fact spokesman Eddy Leviten says the rise of the internet has made it easier for pirated films to be distributed via auction sites and through P2P file sharing services. So the organisation is now monitoring web and auction sites for the sale of such illegal material.

‘As broadband penetration increases throughout the UK and speeds reach double or even quadruple what they were it will become easier to download movies, and the propensity to share files will increase,’ said Leviten.

‘We have increased our presence in this area and have tools that speed up and automate the search for illegal material.’

There is also growing concern about new technologies such as DVD burners that are getting faster, and tower systems that allow the copying of multiple DVDs simultaneously.

There is also the issue of camcorders that are used to copy films in cinemas.

‘There is no doubt that camcorders are getting smaller, easier to conceal and provide better-quality images for pirated DVDs,’ said Leviten.

But as technology makes the copying of films easier, it is also making it easier to catch those behind illegal copying and distribution operations.

Fact is reluctant to go into the technical details at the risk of alerting potential film pirates, but it says distributors now mark audio and video forensically.

‘Each distributor marks a film print in its own way, which includes adding discreet sounds or images,’ said Leviten.

‘Using this identification, a distributor can trace from which cinema the copy originated.’

Fact uses forensic examination tools, accredited to police intelligence standards, on material that it seizes.

‘This allows us to pick out information such as where the disc was manufactured, on what machine it was burned, and can track emails between criminals,’ said Leviten.

Cinema chains are joining the fight, with some using night vision goggles or CCTV to identify people attempting to use camcorders, particularly during premieres or early screenings.

And others are looking into technology methods such as altering the light modulation of prints to scramble digital recordings. A recent test in a US cinema emitted a white light to obscure recordings.

The Film Distributors’ Association chief executive Mark Batey says the UK is particularly prone to piracy because prints supplied to cinemas are in English, the biggest market for pirated DVDs.

‘Premieres are also usually held in the UK before the rest of Europe because it is the second biggest film market behind the US,’ he said.

Batey says increased film piracy is the unfortunate consequence of the recent boom in digital technology.

‘New technology, such as good quality digital camcorders, is now more affordable, and though that it is a good thing, it makes it easier for people to make copies and rip off consumers,’ he said.

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Further reading 

P2P services raise ISP hackles

Digital propels entertainment

Sky eyes TV on demand