Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Michael McDowell, yesterday called on the public to stop buying cut-price DVDs and fuelling what he called the "world of organised crime."
"Cut-price DVDs may seem like a bargain, but when you look behind the scenes there is a price to pay - a very high one," the Minister said at a meeting of the anti- piracy steering committee in Dublin. "Copyright theft represents a very real and serious crime."
Film piracy in Ireland costs the industry €300 million a year and a further €150 million is lost annually to the Exchequer. In addition to these losses - which in cinema terms equate to a decline of 3.5 million people or €20 million a year - annual criminal earnings are estimated to be between €100 million and €150 million.
Addressing the gathering of Government representatives, An Garda Síochána and executives from the film and entertainment industry, Mr McDowell said that film piracy destroyed jobs and livelihoods and must be stopped.
He acknowledged that the temptation of black-market prices would always represent a lure to some customers and said it was an issue that needed to be faced head on.
"By doing what you are doing you are in fact creating an organised crime parallel universe," he said, adding that such a purchase was not a choice without moral dimension. He said there was no doubt that the people involved in film piracy were also involved in drugs and other such crimes.
Mr McDowell said he had set up a high-profile working group to coordinate a campaign aimed at "eradicating the pernicious evil crime of intellectual property piracy". He also said he would be examining the sentences relating to piracy crimes and ensure they were more severe in future.
"The punishments handed out at the moment don't fit the severity of the crimes," said Paul Ward, director of the Ward Anderson group. He said piracy was doing "massive damage" to the cinema industry in Ireland and had the potential to spell its demise if nothing was done.
Mr Ward said cinema admissions had fallen over the last few years despite the introduction of new multiplexes and if this continued, a large number of jobs would be lost within the industry.
This is a fate also faced by the film rental market, according to Martin Higgins, chief executive of XtraVision and Blockbuster International. He said his parent company had recently had to dismiss 700 of its employees in Spain after the pirate market grew from 4 per cent to 60 per cent of the legitimate market in less than two years.
Ireland is in danger of following in the same footsteps if something isn't done, he said. Currently the pirate DVD market in Ireland is higher in volume but lower in value than the legitimate market.
