The CEA has renewed its call to Government to outlaw camcording in cinemas.
Writing in Cinema Business magazine, CEA Chief Executive notes that – in the absence of any UK legislation specifically outlawing the use of a camcorder in a cinema theatre – the anti-piracy organisation FACT report a 54 per cent increase in UK-sourced camcords in the last year.
The importance of this becomes clear when it is considered that the Motion Picture Association estimate that for each of the last four years around 90 per cent of illegal film content found in hard and virtual copy began life as a camcord.
Recent moves in Spain to introduce appropriate legislation mirror those in the US,Canada and nearly every other developed film territory. As a result, the UK is now seen as one of the key sources of illegal content on the world market.
As a result of all of these factors, the pressure coming from across the entire film industry for action is, the CEA Chief Executive argues, becoming irresistable. Noting recent discussions with Government, he is optimistic of a satisfactory outcome. But he also recognises that the longer it takes to get workable legislation, the longer the cinema sector – which alone lost some £88m of box office in 2007 – will suffer.