02/12/2009

Sales cut in half since 2004, and roughly 1,000 video stores forced to close in the last 20 months: these are the effects of the sweeping use of illegal downloading of copyrighted audiovisual works, combined with the current recession.

Rapidly evolving technology and the broadband explosion are behind the boom in illegal file sharing of music and films. The ANVI Confesercenti (the Italian video rental retailers association) points the finger at Italy’s competition watchdog: “In Italy, there are no laws to cover Internet file sharing that involves copyright-protected material. Video rental retailers are therefore up against adversaries who can’t be clearly identified and who are exploiting the legal loophole”, ANVI explains.

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At the Cinema Professional Days now underway in Sorrento, the warning has been launched: piracy is “a plague that causes damage which could well become irreversibile,” says Paolo Protti, president of ANEC (the Italian exhibitors’ trade association). According to a study made by FAPAV-IPSOA, audiovisual works are mainly “pirated” in the theatres, especially as far as the audio is concerned, while videos find their way to the Web from abroad. The deed is done in almost no time at all; nearly half of the films are pirated just 24 hours after they are released, and 6% even before the release. Tarak Ben Ammar, attending the Sorrento event to present the lineup for his Eagle Pictures expresses his concern: "What Italy needs is a law like the one in France that cracks down on illegal downloading. It was sponsored by President Sarkozy himself and recently approved (see news). If we all band together – distributors, producers, exhibitors, and video rental retailers – we can lobby the Italian government for a similar law”.