BSA leads call for new European anti-piracy laws

Among the changes that the groups request is one which would put an ID number on every CD or DVD which would allow the source of pirated discs to be traced.

The creative sector says it is witnessing a convergence of internet piracy and physical piracy, fuelled by the falling cost of disc duplication technology.

Dara MacGreevy, Vice President of the Motion Picture Association commented on Thursday:

"Pirates are using the internet to download illegal copies of movies and then burning them onto CD-ROMs or DVD Recordables. Just last week, our anti-piracy programme in the UK, working with local enforcement authorities, raided a major pirate DVD-R factory that was making copies of 'Spider Man' and 'Star Wars: Episode II' that had been downloaded from the internet. Over 10,000 discs and 31 DVD burners were seized in the raid."

Representatives of the European film, video, music, business and interactive leisure software sectors jointly called for the EU Enforcement Directive to include the following:

• Genuinely deterrent penalties and damages, so that pirates can no longer write off damages as a small operational cost;
• Reasonable presumption of copyright ownership to avoid delays in court proceedings that in some cases allow pirates to escape justice;
• Seize and preserve evidence of piracy to make available effective provisional measures allowing seizure and preservation of evidence before criminals can destroy it;
• Right of information about manufacture and distribution so that the original manufacturer or distributor of the infringing goods can be identified; and
• Compulsory Source identification codes (SID) so that the source of manufacture of over 100 million of pirated discs manufactured in Europe every year can be tracked down.

The Home Office of the UK Government last week announced a project based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. CDs, laptop computers and consignments of clothing will be fitted with RFID tracking technology as part of a trial aimed at combatting the trade in stolen and counterfeit goods.

Woolworths, Dell, and EMI working with Asda are among the firms taking part in the initiative. The tags will carry information on origin, current location and final retail destination.