The Big Picture

Overview

It's a myth that buying fake DVDs or downloading illegal content is a victimless crime. The most obvious concern may be the poor sound and picture quality or that the film stops before the end leaving you hanging. But scratch the surface and you'll find the damage caused by fake DVDs affects a wide range of people.

Copyright theft is a big issue - for the consumer, for the film and TV industries and for communities. For legitimate business, the distributors and high street retailers who sell or rent DVDs, counterfeiting has a significant impact on profits. At present, 15% of the value of legitimate sales is lost to the problem. It doesn't just affect big businesses; these losses have a serious negative impact on the 200,500 people employed in the industry in the UK, contributing to rental and retail store closures, loss of jobs and threatening future investment.

Take a look at the numbers to get a feel for the true scale of the problem: