Australian piracy sting over “14.3 million” movies

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 05 December 2008 08:48

IT Industry - Strategy

Neil Gane, the Director of Operations for AFACT commented that:

“BitTorrent is a legitimate and efficient software for sharing files but, like any tool, it can be misused.

“This case clearly demonstrates how damaging P2P piracy can be – sucking money from the legitimate production and distribution of movies thereby discouraging creativity and destroying Australian businesses and jobs,” concluded Gane.

Andrew Traucki, an Australian director and producer, whose film “Black Water” was being illegally shared on the BT tracker site, said:

“I put a huge amount of work into my feature film Black Water. Being a low budget film I didn't get paid much and hoped to make some money for all my effort from the films sales.

“The fact that Black Water had been pirated and was online within days of being finished is upsetting. How are Australian film producers like me meant to make a living from our films if people pirate the film and watch it for free?

“I thank the Australian Federal Police for their outstanding work in putting a stop to the illegal activities of this group”.

AFACT notes that “penalties for copyright crimes are a maximum of $60,500 and/or 5 years’ jail per offence.”

AFACT also notes that “in the 12 month period from October 2007 to October 2008, AFACT assisted State and Federal Police on enforcement actions involving film piracy which resulted in the seizure of 969,514 pirated DVDs with an estimated street value of $7.7 million, and 761 burners capable of producing over 19 million pirated DVDs a year.”

AFACT says that it “acts on behalf of the 50,000 Australians directly impacted by copyright theft including independent cinemas, video rental stores and film and television producers across the country. AFACT has its own anti-piracy hotline: 1800 251 996.”