GristyMcFisty lets us know that the movie studios
are launching a new anti-piracy campaign today
in the U.S. for which they're using a new tactic: they're asking nicely. In
the television ads and in-theater
spots makeup artists, set painters and other
crafts people are used to deliver a clear message; 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" program 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 endeavoring 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."
While copies of popular blockbusters can be found on
the Internet '” sometimes days before the movie is released to theaters '”
computer copies of films are still too large to download easily and are
often poor quality copies made using hand-held camcorders. Music files, by
contrast, are smaller and are CD quality. That fact led to services such
as Napster, which was shut down after legal action taken by the music
industry.
Movie studios believe they still have a few years
before Internet connections become fast enough to threaten them in the
same way. Studios are experimenting with new business models, including
making films available legitimately online through services such as
Movielink. |
The first television ads will be displayed on Thursday night while the first trailers
will begin running Friday in most major theater chains around the
country. Each ad will end with a tag line, Movies. They're worth
it.
Source: Yahoo! News
