Campaign highlights organised crime link to DVD piracy

The links between DVD piracy and organised crime have been highlighted at the launch of Northern Ireland's biggest ever DVD piracy consumer awareness campaign.

The campaign is part of a national pre-Christmas blitz by the Industry Trust for IP Awareness which aims to shatter the illusion of DVD pirates as harmless ‘Del Boy’ characters.

Through the Trust, film distributors and retailers have joined forces to tackle the serious problem of DVD piracy. In Northern Ireland, the campaign is backed by the Organised Crime Task Force, which is actively tackling the problem of intellectual property (IP) crime.

According to the Organised Crime Task Force's 2004 report, "paramilitary gangs carry out 80% of organised IP crime in Northern Ireland. Both loyalist and republican gangs are equally heavily involved”. During 2003, OCTF partners seized around £2 million of counterfeit DVD’s, videos and CD’s across the province.

Commenting on the issue, Enterprise Minister Ian Pearson said: "Paramilitary gangs carry out 80% of the intellectual property crime in Northern Ireland which serves to emphasise the sinister nature of this particular form of criminality.

“I would challenge everyone to think where their money is going before purchasing a pirated DVD - they are lining the pockets of organised criminals, the vast majority of whom have links to paramilitary organisations."

Lavinia Carey, Director General of the British Video Association, added: "By challenging the public's views about piracy being a victimless crime, we hope to make people stop and think where their money is going before they buy a pirate DVD.

“We want to raise the public profile of the problem and make people realise that on top of buying a potentially poor quality DVD, which may not be worth watching, they are could be funding the criminal activities that cause serious problems in their community."

Anyone who is aware of the DVD pirate activity can report it anonymously by calling the campaign hotline 0845 6034567 or via the campaign website www.piracyisacrime.com.

(MB/SP)