MPA launches anti-piracy movie trailer in India

New Delhi, June 20 (UNI) Concerned over pirated films making deep inroads in the movie business, the Los Angeles-based Motion Pictures Association (MPA) today launched an anti-piracy movie trailer aimed at making Indian cinegoers aware of the laws protecting copyright and encouraging them to reject pirated films found online or on DVDs.

''The trailer in Hindi will be dubbed into regional languages, including Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam, and played at hundreds of theatres across the country,'' said Mike Ellis Senior Vice-President and Regional Director Asia-Pacific for the MPA.

Ellis said the reach of the trailer would be further extended after the commencement of its extensive run on Star India Television's network in July.

The public education effort represented by the trailer campaign is a result of cooperation among the MPA, a leading body of major motion picture companies in the global marketplace, Star India TV and Indian production house Quality Cine Labs, which is producing the prints of the trailer and undertaking regional language dubbing.

''India boasts one of the world's greatest movie industries,with Indian films popular the world over. However, the effects of film piracy touch millions of Indian people and cause significant economic and social damage,'' Ellis said.

The trailer launch comes at the end of MPA's two-month-long region-wide anti-piracy enforcement campaign, Operation Tripod, running in 13 countries and territories across the Asia-Pacific region.

Operation Tripod targets the production, distribution, export and sale of pirated movies throughout the world by highlighting distinction between piracy of local or foreign movies. It has worked with enforcement agencies to protect sales of all cinema tickets and legitimate DVDs and VCDs in India and throughout Asia-Pacific.

Ellis said Operation Tripod was being conducted in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

Last year, the MPA investigated more than 30,000 cases of piracy and assisted law enforcement officials in conducting nearly 12,400 raids. These activities resulted in the seizure of more than 35 million illegal optical disc, 50 factory optical disc production lines and 4482 optical disc burners as well as initiation of more than 11,000 legal actions.

A comprehensive study on the impact of piracy on the film industry recently calculated that the MPA studios lost 6.1 billion dollars to worldwide piracy in 2005.

UNI