(Düsseldorf, 8 March 2005) There’s no stopping women these days. They’re breaking through the glass ceiling and into the top echelons of business. Women are also setting new records when it comes to illegal copying of films: last year alone, a good three million women illegally copied films to CD-ROMs or DVDs. The Zukunft Kino Marketing GmbH believes International Women’s Day is the perfect time to make it clear: “Female movie thieves are criminals too!” 

While it’s generally true that the Internet is dominated by men, women are catching up quickly. Not only are women playing an increasing role in chat rooms and as web surfers, they are also increasingly seduced by the apparent anonymity of the Internet into downloading or copying films illegally. Each year, the share of women among file-sharing culprits is rising, as a recent representative study by the GFK on behalf of the German Federal Film Board (Filmförderungsanstalt, FFA) showed: 7.1% of Germany’s women burned films to CDs and DVDs in 2004 – that translates to nearly three million women.

So it’s high time to point out to women that illegal file-sharing is against the law, believes Dr. Elke Esser, managing director of the Zukunft Kino Marketing GmbH. “Until now, many women felt the ‘Movie thieves are Criminals’ ampaign addressed men more than women. We want to change that perception, which is why we created the poster ‘Female movie thieves are criminals too’, which is now being delivered to cinemas and video stores throughout Germany.” The new poster shows a close-up of a female movie thief preparing to commit a crime. The headline above states: "Female movie thieves are criminals too."

The need to make it clear to women that their file-sharing activities are a crime is made clear by a particularly drastic case in Ostfriesland. To raise money for social work, a certain Ms. K. sold pirated films; potential customers found it easy to order current films from her. It must have been a very lucrative business. The case came to light when the culprit attempted to sell
her BMW convertible. The city decided to take a closer look at her financial situation and uncovered the illegal trade.