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 Ninety percent of pirated copies of movies are still playing in theaters. Once a 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, then distributed to bootleg "dealers" across the country and overseas. Consequently, the film appears in street markets around the world just days after the US theatrical release and well before its international debut.
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
The MPAA and its members are dedicated to ensuring that the sources of piracy are eradicated and to educating people about the gravity of piracy and its consequences.
Enforcement efforts, combined with speedy resolution of copyright infringement cases in the court system, are essential components of our broad approach to eliminating piracy. Among the current measures to mitigate the level of illegal camcording activity are:
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Investing in Security: Major movie studios are spending substantial amounts of money to upgrade movie print security across the country and have retained security companies 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 monoculars, or other methods.
Legislation: In the US, thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia have laws against the use of a recording device in a theater, which enables state and local authorities to criminally arrest and prosecute camcorder pirates. The MPAA continues to work with legislators in numerous states where additional legislation is being proposed. In 2005, President Bush signed the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, which makes camcording in a theater a federal felony and establishes new penalties for pirating works that have not yet been released commercially. First-time violators can be sentenced from up to three and five years in prison, and fined up to $250,000 for these kinds of crimes. MPA is lobbying for similar legislation in other countries as well, although many countries have existing legislation to prohibit illegal camcording. For example, in Canada camcording is an infringement under the Copyright Act, regardless of whether it is for the public or personal use of the person making the copy.
Nationwide Hotline: In an effort to help theatre employees and moviegoers report criminal activity, the MPAA has established a nationwide hotline that enables the reporting of violations 24 hours a day, 7 days a week:
(800) 371-9884. Although the hotline is currently only for the U.S. and Canada, we are working to establish similar programs in other countries.
Public Education and Training: Along with informing consumers that camcorder copies of movies are often illegally sold online by pirates, the MPAA is working with the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) to train the staff of their member theatre companies about how to identify and report suspicious behavior. This is just one example of a history of collaboration and partnership with NATO, who supported the wide release of the anti-piracy trailers that were shown in thousands of theatres around the country in 2004.
Technical Measures to Prevent Camcording: The MPAA's Office of Technology 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.
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