Rogue Websites

Rogue sites jeopardize jobs for film and TV workers. Explore this page to learn more.

Rogue websites traffic in stolen movies, TV shows, and music or even counterfeit prescription medications and other goods. These sites are located throughout the world, and while they often look legitimate - featuring advertising from reputable companies, accepting major credit cards - they're really online havens for theft, enabling criminals to profit from content or intellectual property they had nothing to do with creating.

The potential harm from rogue sites - exposure to malware, identity theft, unsafe and untested medicines and other counterfeit products, and lost jobs and income for creative workers - is profound. Innumerable companies rely on their intellectual property to do business and create valuable products, which supports well-paying jobs, workers' pension and healthcare plans, and healthy local economies and tax revenues. In the U.S., the motion picture industry alone supports more than 2 million jobs, including truck drivers, architects, accountants, make-up artists, animators, costumers, digital effects technicians, set-builders and more.

Too much is at stake for us to allow rogue sites and those who operate them to continue to steal creative works with impunity. That's why, together with a broad coalition of businesses, labor unions, guilds, law enforcement, and other stakeholders, we are working on solutions that will put a stop to rogue sites. Check this page often to read more about our efforts.

Stories from the Creators

Tens of thousands of small businesses all over the country support film and television production - companies in all lines of work, from drycleaners to caterers, who count on the motion picture industry as one of their many clients. The film and television industry supports over 2 million American jobs, all dependent on movie and TV making, in ways big and small, to earn a living and support their families.

Meet just a few of the working men and women in America's creative community whose lives - and livelihoods - are affected by internet content theft. Read, watch and listen to their experiences.

Authors, Filmmakers, Musicians Battling Piracy
The Statesman |July 4, 2011
"Months and months of hard work available for illegal downloading - free of charge - in a matter of minutes. That's the difficulty facing authors, filmmakers and musicians across the nation, costing them untold sums of money each year." Read More

Hobo With a Shotgun' Director Responds to People Who Illegally Download His Movie
Moviefone |April 6, 2011
"Today it hurt to hear that people are illegally downloading 'Hobo With a Shotgun.' I saw one torrent seeding over 7600 downloads. I knew this day would come, I wish I could stop/prevent it from happening, but I can't." Read More

DGA director-member Milos Forman's keynote address to the CISAC World Copyright Summit
SHOOT Publicity Wire |June 17, 2009
" The movies we make are the result of our work. Work that requires of us our time, weeks, sometime months, even years to create. And time is expensive to us and it takes a long time to create a film for the public to enjoy.But even during that long process of creation the moviemakers, musicians, and composers need, like everyone else, to eat and support their families." Read More

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