Advanced Television

Industry boost for anti-piracy awareness

October 26, 2015

By Colin Mann

The UK’s creative industries have launched an advertising and consumer engagement campaign to promote a new education initiative – Get it Right from a Genuine Site. Its aim is to encourage respect for the value of creativity in the UK and to boost consumer awareness and use of the wide range of legal sources of content available to them.

Get it Right from a Genuine Site – @getitright – represents a completely fresh approach to the issue of copyright infringement, and seeks to engage with younger consumers in particular in ways that are far more relevant to them. It marks the first time that content creators from the worlds of film and TV and music have, with the support of government as well as trades unions, retailers and other creative sectors including games, books, media and sports, come together with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to promote the value of creativity and to reduce online copyright infringement.

Contributing almost £77 billion to the UK economy and promoting a dynamic vision of Britain around the world, it’s vital that the creative industries and their highly skilled 1.7 million workforce are valued and protected from copyright infringement so that even more can be invested in producing cutting-edge, original content for fans to enjoy.

The @getitright education campaign is adopting a different tone and approach to the anti-piracy drives of previous years that sought to dissuade infringing behaviour through aggressive messaging and the threat of sanctions alone. Instead, it aims to open the eyes of consumers who still access content from non-genuine sites to the positive impact of supporting UK creativity by inspiring and encouraging them to make the right choice – to see themselves in effect as investors in a creative process that will, with their full support, deliver even more of the content they love.

Spearheaded by a prime TV spot on ITV during Sunday night’s X Factor talent show on October 25, the ads feature one character who chooses to use his device to access genuine content mirrored by another who does so from dodgy sites. The ad then shows how the cinemas, music outlets and games stores around the first character expand and flourish, filling both the physical and digital worlds with creativity and extended choice, while the environment that surrounds the other becomes grey, dull and devoid of the stuff we love. Ads using the same creative treatment will also run online, across digital OOH, in print, on radio and in cinemas over the coming weeks and months.

Alongside the standout animated TV advertising film, @getitright has launched a multi-city Street Art project to resonate with a new generation of young consumers that are passionate about the quality and authenticity of content. The Street Art project kicked-off in Birmingham last week with the unveiling of a six storey high artwork spray painted on the iconic Custard Factory; home to the city’s creative quarter. It represents the single biggest multi-city street art project to date in the UK. The 18 metre mural features hometown creative heavyweights including rapper, producer and musician Mike Skinner of The Streets, Academy Award Nominated actress for the Theory of Everything, Felicity Jones, up and coming rapper, singer and producer Lady Leshurr and iconic poet Benjamin Zephaniah. Street art murals are now planned for Liverpool, Cardiff, Bournemouth and Edinburgh in the coming weeks, with other sites potentially following.

Rt Hon John Whittingdale MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, said: “Copyright is the bedrock of the creative industries, which are worth £76.9 billion to the UK economy. From cutting-edge video games to box-office smashes, the continuing success and availability of our creative industries relies on customers making the right choice to access content legally. I am delighted that rights holders and internet companies have come together under the banner of Creative Content UK to educate consumers about both the need to properly reward creativity, and the threat that online piracy poses.”

Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive, BPI and BRIT Awards and music spokesperson for Get it Right from a Genuine Site, said: “We want people to understand the vital importance of supporting the films, TV, music, games, books, magazines and sports they love, and the fact that by doing so they are not only helping to create more of it for everyone to enjoy but are investing in the development of new artists and ideas. Our goal is to encourage everyone to access content from genuine services rather than dodgy sites.”

Marianne Grant, Senior Vice President at the Motion Picture Association and film spokesperson for Get it Right from a Genuine Site, commented on the project: “We deliberately chose Street Art to help tell our story and raise awareness of our campaign. It allows us to showcase some of the most creative talents in the UK right now to the nation and particularly inspire young people to think big when it comes to their own creative ambitions. It’s the perfect creative accompaniment to our stand out advertising campaign.”

Baroness Neville-Rolfe, Minister for Intellectual Property, said the Government was committed to tackling online copyright infringement and supporting the creative industries that bring so much to the UK’s economy and culture. “We want the UK to be the most innovative country to do business and a thriving creative industry plays a part in that. The Creative Content UK education campaign that the government is funding as part of this work. ‘Get It Right from a Genuine Site’ shows that online piracy, including illegally downloading music or streaming films, has a real impact on the creative industries and that simple choices about where you get content make a big difference.”

Michael Dugher MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, said that creativity was in Britain’s DNA. “This passion means our creative industries are now worth the best part of £80 billion to the UK economy and help to promote a dynamic vision of the UK around the world. It’s vital that we protect and promote the fantastic entertainment and media content that we produce, so we can continue to develop more of it for fans to enjoy. I am delighted to add my backing to Creative Content UK’s ‘Get it Right from a Genuine Site’ education campaign, which aims to encourage consumers to use the vast range of legal digital services now available that give value back to the people that make the content they love.”

The campaign will also operate live online through a dedicated website and social channels. These platforms provide consumers with information about the Get it Right from a Genuine Site campaign as well as links to legal sources of content, both free and paid.

The Get it Right from a Genuine Site education programme is part of the Creative Content UK initiative, a ground-breaking partnership between content creators and the UK’s four main Internet Service Providers (ISPs) BT, Sky, Talk Talk and Virgin Media, together with an education campaign part-funded by the government, aimed at helping reduce online copyright infringement. The initiative also includes a subscriber alerts programme, to follow after the education campaign launch, which will notify bill-payers if illegal content is being shared with other users through their Internet connection.

Once the alert components launch, the campaign website will also provide resources for consumers who want to understand why they received an alert and what they can do to make sure their account does not infringe copyright again.

The education campaign is operating in a context where there is no one silver bullet fix to the issues of copyright infringement, with site blockings, action to reduce advertising on illegal sites and pressure on search engines to promote legal sites over infringing ones in their search results all playing an effective part in the overall approach.

 

Categories: Articles, Content, Piracy, Policy, Regulation, Rights