Berlin, May 2006. Even though the film industry can be proud of its accomplishments since the beginning of the campaign “movie thieves are criminals” in November 2003, the danger is not wiped out, yet. To that end,  multiple  organizations, companies and associations have pulled together and created an all encompassing project plan including law enforcement, new technological developments, education and market research.

1. Civil and criminal tracing
In 2005, sizable successes against piracy were accomplished. These were accomplished by the German Federation against Copyright Theft e.V. (Gesellschaft zur Verfolgung von Urheberrechtsverletzungen e.V., GVU), which was able to break up a major group in the German piracy scene through a “Flatline (FTL)” on April 20, 2005. This group’s movies were frequently of top quality, both in sound and picture and were available in the internet – sometimes even before the official movie release in Germany. The leaders of the German organization “Release Group” operated from their homes, known by their nicknames “MrB” and “Slymer”. The police collected extensive evidence in their flats. In addition, the GVU lead a concentrated project focusing on public markets for pirated copies. They kept an eye on such auction houses as eBay, peer-to-peer networks and websites offering illegal downloads, but also offline areas, such as flea-markets. Under the name of “Massendelikte [Mass crime]” offers from over 50 auction houses were evaluated. Should the evaluation meet the legally set criteria, in minor cases the offer was removed upon the GVU’s request (a so-called VERI-deletion) or in qualifying cases, a legal procedure was set into motion. Altogether, 1,641 VERI-deletions were initiated in eBay (2004: 286) and after further review, 463 legal proceedings were instigated (2004: 135).

The individual organizations are also very active. One such example is the Association of Video and Media Retailers in Germany (Interessenverband des Videotheken- and Medienfachhandels e.V., IVD), which carried out flea-market screenings and employee workshops on the topic of piracy. The Federal Organization for Audiovisual Media (Bundesverband Audiovisuelle Medien e.V., BVV) takes further steps and not only observes relevant websites, but also acts legally against suspicious uploaders and websites, offering illegal movie material. In this way, many companies are getting personally involved and are pursuing criminal behaviour through by means of civil law, with the help of detectives and investigational departments for the infringement of copyrights.

2. Technical research and security checks
At a press conference on July 12, 2005, the company Fraunhofer-Institute for Integrated Publication and Information Systems showed us the most recent developments regarding the digital watermark. This makes tracing a pirated copy back to its source, possible. By now, the research is so well developed, that the digital watermark could become an international standard. Extensive tests were done to see if the watermark could be heard. The result: It cannot, not even in the quietest parts of the movie. The tests also proved the watermark to be very robust – both in digital as well as in analogue tests even under compromising conditions. Tests were done in various recording settings, such as in the movie theater. The result: The technology functioned with no problem. The next step is seeing if an effective international infrastructure can be set up so as to introduce the new technology and optimize coordinated searches. “We’re confident that it will be possible in the near future to implement the system and thus increasingly uncover piracy”, says Johannes Klingsporn, managing director of the Association of Film Distributors (Verband der Filmverleiher e.V., VdF).

Further activities in the fight against movie theft are implementation of measures for copy protection for DVD releases, as well as close monitoring during the individual steps of the production process from post-production to the movie’s release in theaters. Measures will be taken to hinder recordings in theaters themselves, rewarding employees for catching people recording red-handed.

3. Education and information
Information continues to play a very important role. In 2006, the campaign tends to pay special attention to the internet, being one of the most important venues in the piracy scene for producing and distributing illegal copies of movies. This is made very clear in two of the viral spots made specifically for the internet, being the scene of the crime. These spots are done in the humorous-drastic style typical for this campaign: “movie thieves can’t hide, not even in the internet”. Congruously, there are new events planned for the summer months, with the theme “You can’t hide”.

In addition to the popular campaign “movie thieves are criminals”, Zukunft Kino Marketing GmbH started an informational initiative called “RESPE©T COPYRIGHTS” in August 2005. On the website www.respectcopyrights.de, teachers and parents can download lesson plans at no charge, which teach about the problems of copyright theft in a neutral style. There is also the possibility to upload suggestions for lesson plans and thus remains open to third parties. “With the initiative RESPE©T COPYRIGHTS, we have basically responded to the requests of educators. We were repeatedly approached by teachers and police as to whether or not we had teaching and educational materials on the topic of copyright theft”, explains Jan Oesterlin, managing director of Zukunft Kino Marketing GmbH.

As of May 2005, the campaign “RESPE©T COPYRIGHTS” has placed information on eBay in the so-called information page, located directly over the category “Movies & DVDs” dealing with the topic of copyright theft. The user can find helpful tips on how to recognize a pirated movie and what they can do to protect themselves as well where to report suspicious products.

The movie industry has realized the importance of informing and educating its own people, as well and has already started responding to this concern. That is why employees of theaters and movie rental stores are given informational material on the subject of German copyrights. Furthermore, they are informed on how to respond to a violation of these laws, as well as the economic and social consequences brought on by the illegal usage of movies.

The GVU is also intensely involved in educational work. For years, they have been presenting speeches within workshops and seminars for Germany’s law enforcement officials with such participants as lawyers, judges, legal workers and customs officials, in which the problems around copyright can be discussed.

4. Legal online offers
Another strategy used in the fight against movie thieves is in offering legal alternatives for downloading from the internet. This is how in2movies began on April 12, 2006, being a joint venture between Warner Bros. Entertainment GmbH and arvato mobile, the first download-to-own platform in the German language for movies and TV series. Now interested users can download around the clock and have it for keeps, as apposed to the offer by the already known Video-on-Demand.

5. Market research
In order to get a feel for the market and to be able to estimate the damages, the German movie industry is performing extensive market research. One example of this, is the annual “Brennerstudie” done by the German Federal Film Board (Filmförderungsanstalt, FFA), having come out with its fourth edition in 2005. One important result of the survey: The number of illegal downloads between 2004 and 2005 increased. In the first half year 2005, 1.7 million people downloaded 11.9 million movies – this reveals a 16 % growth. In proportion to the improvements of technical equipment in the average German household, the increase remains low. According to the Brennerstudie, almost 65 % of Germans (64.4 %) have private access to the internet. Only 30 % still have dial-up modems, 66 % ISDN and DSL. Almost a fourth of all internet users (23.6 %) have a flat- rate. And 48.4 % of broadband holders have a flat-rate. Another positive result of the Brennerstudie: The awareness of the campaign “movie thieves are criminals” had risen to 31% as opposed to 18 % in July 2004. The target group of 20 - 29 year-olds revealed an awareness as high as 64 % in August 2005 as opposed to 41 % in 2004. Another interesting result: The awareness of injustice of those familiar with the campaign was considerably higher than among those in the general public.