Content Protection in Australia
in this section:
Illegal movie and television piracy is a thriving international enterprise. The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) estimates that the film and television industry in Australia loses approximately $230 million each year in potential revenue to piracy. The losses impact on production, cinema and DVD businesses as well as losses to governments in uncollected tax revenues.
In 2009, State and Federal Police conducted 69 raids involving movie piracy and seized 194,233 pirated DVDs. They also seized 749 burners capable of producing over 18 million pirated DVDs a year with a potential street value of over $94million.
What is Copyright?
Copyright is the legal protection for creators/owners of creative work such as music, images and films to prevent anyone copying their work without permission.
Film and TV copyright laws are designed to protect those involved in a TV program or movie’s creation, production, sale, distribution and screening. Copyright automatically belongs to the creator of an original work and in Australia generally lasts for the life of the creator plus 70 years. An Australian film is copyright protected for 70 years from the time it is completed.
Whoever owns the copyright is free to use the work in anyway they like. They can give away or sell their rights, change the content, and enter into agreements that allow for the work’s sale, distribution and screening.
The following resources will help explain in more detail movie and television piracy in Australia and how it affects each and every Australian. For more detailed information please use the links below. These resources are regularly updated so please visit again.
The Economic Picture
Filmmaking is a risky business, and contrary to popular belief, filmmaking is not always profitable. Australian-produced feature films earned just $35.5 million or 3.8 per cent of the total Australian box office in 2008.
Like every business, the film and television industry relies on its profits to invest in future products. As piracy negatively impacts profitability, there is less available investment capital. Less capital means fewer films and TV shows can be financed, which means jobs are not created and local goods and services are not consumed. The effects of piracy are felt throughout all sectors of Australia’s economy.
The film and television industry is a substantial contributor to the Australian economy. In a report by Access Economics in 2007, entitled the “Economic Contribution of the Film and Television Industry”1, it was found that the contribution of the film and television industry to the Australian economy was $4.4 billion, a contribution of $1.8 billion in tax to the Australian economy, and supported around 50,000 jobs. The Access Economics report takes a holistic view of the industry – from the creators of screened entertainment to the audiences who enjoy their works at cinemas, DVD stores and on the small screen.
1 Economic Contribution of the Film and Television Industry, Access Economics 2009
Some of the key findings of the Access Economic Report include:
- The industry had an estimated turnover of just under $14.5 billion in 2006-7. Out of this turnover, the industry generated an estimated $4.4 billion in value-added contribution to the Australian economy.
- The film and TV sector contributed an estimated $1.8 billion in tax to the Australian government in 2007.
- Sub-components of the $4.4 billion value-added included wages, estimated at $2.1 billion, and Gross Operating Surplus (GOS) estimated at $2.4 billion.
- Of the $4.4 billion in value-added, Free-to-Air TV was the largest contributor equating to almost $1.9 billion, followed by the Production and Distribution sectors at $769 million and $622 million respectively.
- Pay TV contributed $374 million, Exhibition $314 million, Retail $223 million and Rental $238 million.
- Of the $2 billion in production output, $410 million in turnover is from the independent domestic sector.
- The total industry supported almost 50,000 people, which includes 37,774 in direct and 11,140 in indirect employment.
- Production was the largest sector, employing 10,616 people within the industry.
Significant levels of employment are also estimated for the Free-to-Air TV networks with 6,033 employees, 5,890 in Exhibition and 5,663 in Retail. The smallest sector is Distribution with 2,180 employees. - The industry contributes the largest amount in NSW, with $2.3 billion in value-added – about 43% - while the industry in Victoria contributes about $1.2 billion or about 22%, and the industry in Queensland contributes about $1 billion in value-added.
- The industry in NSW was by far the biggest employer, with 21,244 industry employees residing in the state.
- DVD sales have increased from $12million in 1999 to $1,1448million by 2007. This reflects the growth in the new market in the sale of digital home entertainment, which together with DVD rental, had a higher gross annual output than the exhibition sector by 2006-07.
“Economic Contribution of the Film and Television Industry”
The Piracy Ecosystem
Piracy Eco System
The movie piracy eco-system originates from either an illegal recording in a cinema or an illegal copy made from a legitimate DVD, and then continues down two parallel paths, digitally across the Internet and as illegally manufactured DVDs distributed throughout our communities.
Unauthorised Recordings In Cinemas
Unauthorised Recordings In Cinemas
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 movie appears in street markets around the world just days after the theatrical release.
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.
AFACT 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. Effective action by front line cinema staff is a vital component of the movie industry’s strategy to stop illegal camcording along with continuing to raise public awareness, stepping up security measures and advocating for specific, effective laws against camcording.
Among the current measures to mitigate the level of unauthorized camcording activity in Australia are:
Investing in Security: AFACT and industry work closely together at pre-theatrical screenings and premieres to prevent recording devices being used in the cinema. On occasion, handheld metal detector inspections are used to check for hidden recording devices and night vision goggles (NVGs) are deployed.
Public Education and Training: AFACT works 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. In early 2009, AFACT launched the new interactive DVD training program “Make A Difference 2” (MAD 2), aimed at helping to prevent source piracy in cinemas. The anti-camcording training program helps cinema managers and staff detect and prevent persons using recording devices to illegally copy movies being screened in their cinemas. The training package has been distributed to every cinema in Australia.
Make A Difference 2 website
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-cinema Camcorder Detection that would alert cinema owners to individuals camcording within the auditorium.
Organised Crime
Movie thieves stifle creativity, damage our economy and disrupt the social fabric. The piracy business returns stellar profits. Criminal syndicates are focussing on internet and DVD piracy to generate a massive profit, bankrolling other criminal activity.
There is abundant evidence that intellectual property crime has become a preferred fundraising activity for criminal organisations that also number among their pastimes drug trafficking, handling stolen goods and identity theft.
The Australian Crime Commission (ACC) 2009 Organised Crime Report identified IP Crime as a significant crime type within Australia: “IP crime is growing internationally and includes the illicit production, distribution and sale of products without the legal authority of the owner of the intellectual property rights. Offences include a range of counterfeiting and piracy crimes such as trademark counterfeiting and illegally downloading music and movies... The high profit and minor penalties associated with IP crime make it an attractive area for organised crime groups… Opportunities for IP crime have been greatly enhanced by advances in communications’ technology and computer software.”
http://www.crimecommission.gov.au/organised_crime/index.htm
Learn more about movie piracy and how copyright crimes impact on your community:
Learn more about movie piracy and international links to organised crime and terrorism:
How To Identify A Pirated DVD
How to Identify a Pirated DVD
There are a number of indicators that would enable police to identify pirated DVDs. The FIRST indicator is “availability”. Movies are first shown at cinemas before being released on DVD format, often 3-4 months after their cinema release. If a DVD of a movie is being offered for sale before or at the same time as it is being shown at cinemas, then there is a very strong likelihood that it will be a pirate copy.
The second one is “price”. If the price of a new title DVD is “too good to be true”, then the chances are, it is. Movie piracy is an extremely profitable crime. A pirate DVD being sold at between $5 to $10 dollars represents profit margins in excess of 1,000% per disc!
The artwork and packaging of genuine DVDs will be produced to a very high standard. Discs wrapped in cheap cellophane packaging, with poor quality paper stock, inferior quality printing, poor quality labels that can be pealed off, or simply the name of the film or TV show written on the disc itself, are all indicators that the DVD is a pirated copy.
Often the artwork of pirated DVDs do not display the requisite classification markings. In general terms, it is an offence to sell a film unless the determined markings relevant to the classification of the film are displayed on the container, wrapping or casing of the film.
Perhaps the most common indicator is whether the disc is a DVDR. Such “burnt” DVDs, as they are more commonly known, are the preferred format of operators manufacturing or selling pirate DVDs throughout the country.
DVDRs have a dye layer that makes them immediately recognisable. They can be silver in colour but most DVDRs are a purple or blue colour. DVDRs often display a vivid “rainbow effect” if held up to the light. When analysed in this way, “burn lines”, where the data is embedded into the disc, are also evident. Special Identification Codes, embedded into genuine DVD’s are not present on burnt DVDRs. Instead they normally contain a printed batch number on the inner ring that is often the volume capacity, burn speed of the disc and media type.
Practical advice
For any easy reference guide to what’s ok and what’s not ok when it comes to copyright, click on the following links:
