Anti-Piracy in Asia Pacific
UNAUTHORIZED RECORDINGS IN THEATRES
In order to maximize revenues to ensure return in investments, a movie studio typically releases a film according to a sequential schedule. Often that chain includes a first exhibition in the U.S. theaters, followed by international theaters, the domestic home video market, pay cable, network television and finally broadcast TV syndication. Due to language and special marketing considerations, international home video distribution may trail the domestic release of a film by six months or more. When piracy occurs at the beginning of any of these release cycles, downstream markets are negatively affected. As such, unauthorized recordings in theatres are a major threat to the industry.
Over 90% of pirated movies of new release titles originate from unauthorized copies made from cinemas. Once an unauthorized camcorded copy is made, illegal movies often appear online within hours or days of a movie premiere. Pirates sell these "master recordings" to illicit "source labs" where they are illegally duplicated, packaged and prepared for sale on the black market. Consequently, the film appears in street markets around the world just days after the theatrical release.
With day and date releases of major studio titles becoming more prevalent, and worldwide premieres in Asia-Pacific becoming more common place, the number of successful unauthorized recordings in the region has risen exponentially. In 2007, there were 33 from this region. This is a 65% increase as compared to 2006 when there were 20.
According to forensic analysis, in 2006, Asia-Pacific accounted for 4% of the total worldwide camcord problem. This share increased to 5.9% in 2007.
Movie pirates are well-organized, well-trained and equipped with high tech gadgetry to avoid detection. They use compact digital cameras or camcorders, which are difficult to detect through observation in a darkened theatre; fish eye remote lenses and an ocular device wired to the camcorder allowing remote adjustment for centering the frame in picture filming; MP3 players or other recording devices used to make an unauthorized recording of the audio track of the movie; and mobile phones with video recording technology that allows for the unauthorized recording of movies, in full or part.
The MPA and its members are dedicated to ensuring that the sources of piracy, such as unauthorized recordings in cinemas are eradicated, and to educating people about the gravity of piracy and its consequences. Among the current measures to mitigate the level of unauthorized camcording activity in the Asia-Pacific region are:
Investing in Security: In many jurisdictions MPA and industry work closely to conduct routine bag examinations and handheld metal detector inspections at pre-theatrical screenings. Warning signs are also posted prohibiting camcording and alerting audiences that they might be observed by guards using night-vision goggles, or other methods.
Legislation: In the U.S., there are laws against the use of a recording device in a theater, which enables state and local authorities to criminally arrest and prosecute camcorder pirates. In Asia-Pacific, both Hong Kong and Japan have laws which provide the same. MPA is lobbying for similar legislation in other countries as well, although many countries have existing legislation to prohibit illegal camcording.
Public Education and Training: MPA work closely with cinema staff and law enforcement agencies to prevent unauthorized recordings through regular awareness and training seminars as well as through their interactive and multi-lingual web site www.make-a-difference.sg.
Technical Measures to Prevent Camcording: The MPA's Head Office in Los Angeles, USA, is supporting the development of three different types of technologies that could greatly reduce the effectiveness of camcorder pirates: Camcording Jamming Technologies that disable camcorders from copying a theatrically exhibited film being shown on the theatre screen; new Forensic Watermarking that allows investigators and law enforcement to know the exact time, date and auditorium of a screening where a camcorder copy was made; and advanced in-theater Camcorder Detection that would alert theater owners to individuals camcording within the auditorium.
ORGANIZED CRIME
There is abundant evidence that intellectual property theft has become a preferred fundraising activity for organizations that also number among their pastimes drug trafficking, prostitution and people trafficking. In many Asian countries, including Japan, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Korea and the Philippines, copyright theft is included under organized crime or money laundering statutes. For good reason. The piracy business returns stellar profits. Markups on pirated goods average over 1,150%, far exceeding differential profits on those from the illegal drug trade. Organized criminal gangs owe and feel no allegiances to governments and nation, nor do they distinguish between local and foreign businesses. The nature and extent of organized crime, and particularly international organized crime, requires an unprecedented response from nation states and the international community. It requires an aggressive allocation of resources in the areas of enforcement, legislative and judicial reform, and education, an allocation of resources that is commensurate with the billions of dollars that are being stolen by these organized criminal networks from the world’s creative industries and businesses.
HARD GOODS PIRACY
Hard goods piracy refers to the illegal sale, distribution and/or trading of copies of motion pictures in any format, including videocassettes and all optical discs media.
The presence of any of a series of indicators can help point to pirated products, including the absence of special markings on the packaging, unofficial labeling, tape or disc length that does not correspond to the film’s running time. In most countries in the Asia-Pacific region, there is no attempt made to hide the fact that the product is pirated. Pirated products are sold in cheap packaging, when the title has yet to be formally released in video or optical disc format and the price is ridiculously low. No legitimate film producer can stay in business by selling a major title for U.S fifty cents.
Optical Discs: Pirated optical discs and in particular, pirated DVD is the main format being produced in hundreds of millions by organized criminals in the Asia-Pacific region. These discs have flooded the market and have seriously affected all aspects of MPA member company businesses – theatrical, home video and television. The main sources of these illegal copies are either 1) an illegal camcorded copy made during the theatrical showing of the film or 2) an original DVD, by breaking the encryption code to make identical illegal copies. While the majority of pirated optical disc products seized by the MPA is manufactured on advanced commercial replication lines, the declining cost of such high-tech equipment and blank discs has led to the proliferation of DVD burner laboratories. Working with law enforcement agencies around the world, the MPA seized more than 118 million illegal optical discs in 2007.
Counterfeiting: Counterfeit labels and packaging often accompany illegally copied videos and optical discs, especially when they are manufactured for export. Sophisticated labels and markings have been developed by motion picture studios in an attempt to foil counterfeiters. Although not a serious problem in the Asia-Pacific region, counterfeiting is prevalent in a number of countries, including Japan and Korea.
Internet Sales: Illegal hard goods are sold on web sites, through auction sites such as eBay and Yahoo!, and via e-mail solicitations. To combat the problem, in late 2002, the MPA launched its “Tactics Against Auction Piracy” (TAP) initiative, taking quick action against several online sellers across the U.S. who were selling significant numbers of pirated DVDs via online auction houses. The MPA has since launched the TAP program in a number of countries around the Asia-Pacific region, such as Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and New Zealand.
Focus on Source: As optical disc piracy remains the region’s number one problem, the MPA’s focus is to address the sources of pirated discs and the pirates who distribute illegal product.
Pirated optical disc facilities are capable of producing millions of illegal discs each year, which are then distributed worldwide and sold in stores, on the streets, at swap meets and by street market vendors. Masters for these optical discs are normally videos camcorded right off movie theater screens or copies of a genuine DVD are made by breaking the encryption code to make identical illegal copies of the DVD. Pirated optical discs are putting hundreds of legal video outlets out of business throughout Asia-Pacific. These pirates pay no royalties, no taxes and circumvent the normal censorship channels.