Los Angeles, July 22: The US movie industry is trying a new tactic in its war against people who download pirated copies of films over the Internet – it is asking nicely. Movie studios will launch a campaign on Tuesday that includes television ads and in-theatre spots featuring makeup artists, set painters and other crafts people saying that piracy robs them of a living.
The Motion Picture Association of America has also developed a curriculum on copyrights for use in classrooms by Junior Achievement. The "Digital Citizenship" programme covers the history of copyright and culminates with a nationwide contest in which students suggest ways to persuade peers that swapping illegal copies of music and movies is not only illegal, but wrong.
"I don't expect anyone to have sympathy for me or for other executives," said Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer of News Corp., whose Twentieth Century Fox studio made the spots. "What we are endeavouring to do is both communicate that it's wrong and also communicate that there are human stakes and that those stakes are not just millionaires making less millions."
The film and music industries have been aggressive over the past year or so in enforcing their copyrights in the courts as well as lobbying for tougher laws to punish those who swap music and movie files over the Internet.
Bureau Report