Governments Around The World Take A Stand For Creators, Consumers

The MPAA is committed to engaging and working with government agencies at every level around the world to stem the tide of film theft. Often these efforts are focused on the creation of local, targeted initiatives that combine legislation, the dedication of law enforcement and a consumer awareness campaign to curtail film theft and raise awareness about the problem in cities, states and countries around the world.

From Hong Kong and Singapore to the major cities of Brazil, from Los Angeles to New York and Toronto to London, these targeted campaigns have led to improved laws and increased enforcement of those laws. They have also heightened consumer awareness to the high costs movie theft has on their local communities.

An example of one of these successful campaigns joined the MPAA with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The New York campaign was aimed at reducing street vending of illegal DVD copies of movies in the city. New York is home to a thriving film industry, but it is also a major international hub for movie theft. Ads placed in bus stops, movie theaters, taxis, on local cable and broadcast television and other high-profile locales urged consumers to "Get the Real Picture," and gamely emphasized in a light-hearted way the often inferior audio and visual quality of fake street copies of movies.

The creative campaign developed for the New York City initiative uses humor to convey the poor audio and visual quality of bootlegged movies.

Since the initial campaign launch, the City of New York has developed a second phase of the campaign focused on raising public awareness about the impact of piracy and its threat to the more than 700,000 New Yorkers working in the creative industries. Click here to view the latest campaign.