(Berlin, March 2004) Tremendous success was achieved in 2003 in the area of prosecuting copyright violations. Thanks in large part to the efforts of the German Federation Against Copyright Theft (Gesellschaft zur Verfolgung von Urheberrechtsverletzungen e.V., GVU), fines and jail sentences for movie thieves increased considerably in the past year. For 2004, the film industry plans to continue to pursue prosecution of copyright theft, and is also attempting to raise awareness through its “Tough, but fair” campaign.

Prosecution
In 2004, the battle against copyright theft was once again top priority. In order to curtail the illegal consumption of films, the film industry relies not only on awareness training but also on prosecution. The current figures of theGVU speak clearly: the number of confiscated copies rose by 54% in 2003. "In our 400-square-metre evidence room alone, the bootleg copies are stacked floor-to-ceiling,” said Jochen Tielke, managing director of the GVU.

Tougher punishment for movie thieves
Movie thieves noticed in 2003: there’s a harsh wind blowing their way. The portion of criminal cases conducted with the help of the GVU that ended in jail sentences for the defendants rose to 75%. A defendant from the area of Hanover/Brunswick, for example, was sentenced to three years behind bars – without hope of parole. There were also considerably more fines in 2003. Among those cases in which the GVU was active, the number ending in fines for the defendant rose by 54%. The movie thieves convicted in these cases paid fines totalling more than half a million euros. In 2004, the prosecution effort will be redoubled. "We’re not interested in criminalising the entire populace, but large-scale downloading and copying of pirated material – even on the part of private citizens – is something we cannot and will not tolerate any longer,” Elke Esser, managing director of the Zukunft Kino Marketing GmbH, made it clear. "More and more copyright owners will take advantage of their right to sue for damages."

To curtail the professional-quality copying and large-scale downloading of films, the industry relies on the GVU on the one hand. And on the other, more and more film distributors are designating a piracy commissioner whose duty it is to search out pirated material and bring those responsible to justice. There are also paid agencies that browse file-sharing sites on the lookout forbootlegs. The industry places great hope in the “digital watermark” that will make it possible to identify and trace bootleg copies.

Clear signals
Another component in the battle against illegal consumption of films is the widely acclaimed “Movie thieves are Criminals” campaign that started last year. In exaggeratedly dramatised commercials that set an unmistakable tone, the film industry made it clear that the illegal consumption of copyrighted material is not just a trifling offence. Now the campaign is entering its second round: a new commercial spot for cinemas and new print-advertising motifs are being introduced with a view toward sharpening public attitudes toward copyright theft. "The campaign has already changed some people’s habits, as a representative study conducted by the Forsa Institute for Stern magazine has shown. Now it’s important that we intensify the discussion and continue to make it clear that copying and downloading current cinema releases or protected DVDs is theft,” explained Elke Esser. The new commercial and the new posters will be introduced on 11 March 2004.