04 December 2002

CULTURE MINISTER COMES FACE TO FACE WITH PIRATES

At the invitation of the games industry trade body, ELSPA (The Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association) and the film industry body FACT (The Federation Against Copyright Theft), the Culture Minister attended a dawn raid on a business drop address in Cardiff, led by Cardiff Trading Standards. This was followed by a raid at a private address in Blaenavon, South Wales, which had been trading in pirate software, led by Torfaen Trading Standards. Raids at further business drop addresses also took place in Barking, London and Oldham. The investigation was a joint initiative between ELSPA and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

The raids, which followed suspicions that Brian Green Software was trading in the illegal sale of pirated goods, resulted in a seizure of fake computer games, CDs and movie DVD’s and films.

Having seen at first hand this anti-piracy initiative, Kim Howells, who has responsibility within the DCMS for films and music, commented:

“Piracy is theft, plain and simple. It doesn’t just affect large corporations, but also the small film, music and computer game companies that are integral to the future of the creative industries in this country.

“Raids like the one I have been on today, are very effective. But if we are to truly tackle piracy, the Government and industry must work together to get across to the consumer that each time they buy pirate copies of cds, dvds, computer games and videos they are putting a nail in the coffin of the industries they love.

“This message is particularly important in the run up to Christmas which is the most important time of year for these industries.”

According to FACT, seizures of pirated movies on DVD have risen 150% this year and The Alliance Against Counterfeiting and Piracy calculates that UK games, video and music businesses lost £2.358 billion last year due to piracy of their products.

In 80% of the raids carried out by ELSPA, there is evidence of other criminal activity operating alongside piracy including drug trafficking, pornography and even terrorism.

John Hillier, Manager of ELSPA’s Anti-Piracy Unit commented:

“The run up to Christmas is the peak time of year for pirate games and we are carrying out operations such as this almost daily across the country. We are grateful to Trading Standards here in South Wales and across the country in their efforts to help us stem this counterfeiting tidal wave”.

The Director General of the British Video Association (BVA), Lavinia Carey, said:

“Trading Standards Officers across the country are working incredibly hard to tackle the problem of counterfeiting and piracy but in many areas they are simply swamped. Whilst a new Act that came into force just two weeks ago increases the penalties for copyright theft, we urge the Government to provide better funding for the Trading Standards service in order to enable them to enforce the law effectively.”

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