Whoever thought that a presentation on illegal file-sharing could be so exciting! Tony Eaton, Executive Director of the New Zealand Federation against Copyright Theft (NZFACT) and Claire Deeks, Intellectual Property lawyer, presented a riveting account to WIFT NZ of the realities facing the industry when it comes to fighting film piracy. The lengths some of these 'pirates' go to is positively mind-boggling - submarines which can descend quickly at a moment's notice and then resurface when danger has passed, transporting millions of pirated DVDs across the oceans. Anyone who sells, acquires, copies or distributes copyrighted materials, without permission, is called a pirate and downloading a movie without paying for it is morally and ethically no different to walking into a store and stealing a DVD off the shelf. Sharing it through peer-to-peer applications or posting it on a forum for downloading is akin to giving stolen copies to millions of people for free. Ouch!
"Time to have that serious conversation with the teenagers in my house", says WIFT ED Susi. "As of 1 September, when the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act comes into force, I don't want to be harbouring any pirates!"
Claire Deeks has written an article on copyright for members which is available here.
Claire and Tony get ready to talk about the serious issue of Film Piracy.