Piracy in New Zealand
A recent global study examining the impact of motion picture piracy and
consumer behavior has underscored the importance of intellectual
property to economic growth worldwide and revealed the extent of damage
caused by copyright theft to creative industries all around the world,
not just the interests of American businesses.
The study, undertaken by independent research firm LEK Consulting on
behalf of the Motion Picture Association, shows that piracy cost the
film industry in New Zealand an estimated 25 percent of the potential
market in 2005 NZ$70.8 million of which just NZ$27.1 million was
estimated to have been MPA member company losses.
Internet piracy via P2P file-sharing networks is a significant concern
and accounts for the majority of New Zealand movie industry losses - an
estimated NZ$33.1 million in lost consumer spending in 2005. Cracking
down on infringing file-sharing networks is therefore crucial in
combating piracy.
The trade of bootleg optical discs is also extremely harmful to MPA
member companies. In 2005, the bootleg piracy rate was 50%. This means
that 50% of the MPA member company titles bought in 2005 were pirated
units. In 2005 bootleg piracy was responsible for an estimated NZ$24.1
million loss in consumer spending.
Piracy worldwide
A comprehensive study aimed at producing a
more accurate picture of the impact that piracy has on the film
industry including, for the first time, losses due to Internet piracy,
recently calculated that the MPA studios lost US$6.1 billion to
worldwide piracy in 2005. About US$2.4 billion was lost to bootlegging,
US$1.4 billion to illegal copying and US$2.3 billion to Internet
piracy. Of the US$6.1 billion in lost revenue to the studios,
approximate $1.2 billion came from piracy across the Asia-Pacific
region, while piracy in the U.S. accounted for $1.3 billion.
In 2005, the MPA's operations in the Asia-Pacific region investigated
more than 34,000 cases of piracy and assisted law enforcement officials
in conducting more than 10,500 raids. These activities resulted in the
seizure of more than 34 million illegal optical discs, 55 factory
optical disc production lines and 3,362 optical disc burners, as well
as the initiation of more than 8,000 legal actions.
NZFACT has been established to educate
members of the public about copyright protection, copyright
information, copyright laws, software cracking and movie piracy.
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