BRITISH FILM GROUP EASING UP ON PIRACY

It’s a realization that book publishers came to terms with eons ago: the people who visit public libraries and read books for free are often the same people who purchase the most books to keep. And now the film industry may be reaching a similar conclusion when it comes to piracy. A British group, the Industry Trust that is seeking to alter the industry’s view — and illegal downloaders’ — about piracy, has itself undergone a change in philosophy, Liz Bales, the director general of the group told TechRadar.com. “Before I came on board in 2007, campaigns such as ‘you wouldn’t steal a handbag, you wouldn’t steal a car’ were happening,” said Bales. “The thought was that piracy is a crime and that is what should be communicated.” But in studies the group discovered that, as TechRadar put it, “the average pirate is actually the core audience for the movie business.” Bales said that Industry Trust was confronted with solid research showing that the same people who infringe content are also the industry’s most valuable audience. “They go to the cinema more than the national average, they are buying more Blu-rays than anyone else. They are more likely to have a Sky [satellite TV] subscription and they are massively in love with LoveFilm [now Amazon Prime Instant] and Netflix.” Industry Trust is therefore now altering its tack, Bales acknowledged, and “saying that we know you love movies and value that you are spending money on movies but we just want you to do a bit more of the right things and less of the infringement.”