The Industry Trust for IP Awareness is the Film, Television and Video Industries consumer education organisation, promoting the value of copyright and creativity. Lovemovies.ie has been created to be the face and voice of the Industry Trust for IP Awareness in Ireland and a place for audiences to learn more about the impact of making good choices when it comes to their viewing content.
IFTN recently met with Industry Trust Communications Director, Alison Crinion who spoke about her role, the importance of Lovemovies.ie for Irish audiences and the challenges and plans facing the Film Industry in Ireland when it comes to copyright issues:
“Grant Thornton’s latest Illicit Trade Report gave us some very sobering facts and stats about the situation in Ireland - 35% of consumers knowingly participated in illegal downloading of digital content and Films make up 70% of digital pirated materials. The estimated cost of digital piracy to the Irish economy in 2013 was approximately 900 jobs and €57 million to the Exchequer in VAT receipts. Although various steps are being made toward new consequences for IP abuse, enforcement measures are proving a challenge.
“This means that our job is to drive behavioural change through educational and public awareness campaigns in the hope to reduce impact of copyright infringement, and increase interaction and use of legal service providers – not just cinemas, but also services such as Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD), a big plug for Volta.ie as well as UltraViolet (uwu.com) and of course the increasingly popular Netflix.”
Alison makes the point that their work is aimed at changing cinema goers’ mind-set of the estimated 18,000 people working within the industry: “When people consider illegally downloading content they must be aware that they are affecting jobs; in cinemas selling popcorn, in the box office, the crew, the writers, the caterers, the make-up artists…the ordinary people who stand to lose the most from illegal downloading activates.”
The Industry Trust for IP Awareness in Ireland has a formidable Committee, chaired by Tom Byrne (country manager for Sony Home Entertainment) and representatives from Warner Bros, Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, Element, Eclipse Pictures, Disney and Paramount. The Industry Trust has been operating in the UK for 10 years and for almost 5 years in Ireland. Alison joined the team almost a year ago.
“The most successful [campaign] to date has been our ‘Moments Worth Paying For’ (#MWPF) campaigns, special trailers created with studios that remind people of the value placed on the purchase of their cinema ticket and the number of jobs and people involved in making and getting a film on screen. Past campaigns include: ‘Anchorman 2 – The Legend of Ron Burgundy’, ‘The LEGO Movie’, ‘Muppets Most Wanted’ and recently ‘Earth to Echo’, all available to view on Lovemovies.ie. Next #MWPF campaign in Cinemas September 12th will be ‘Dracula Untold’, with thanks to Dave Burke and all at Universal. Through such campaigns we direct audiences to Lovemovies.ie where they can learn more about our educational campaigns and hopefully we can affect positive change.
“The target audiences for Lovemovies.ie are young people 6 – 12, teenagers who are exceptionally tech savvy and parents or ‘Bill Payers’ as they are also known as. Parents play a vital part in teaching responsible IP behaviours in the home…..I feel that this will be more of a generational change; my hope is that in the future we may look back and be shocked that we used to watch films illegally off the internet…imagine!”
Lovemovies.ie has a comprehensive Schools & Colleges Education Strategy and has been working with the Irish Film Institute, Cinemagic, National Media College, Motion Picture Licensing Corporation and SnackBox Films to work directly with younger audiences.
Another challenge, Alison believes, is “educating the Industry - film and media students who have very little understanding of how to protect their own work when they ply their trade in the real world – this debate influences their future. I’ve found the Irish Film Board and Screen Directors Guild to be good allies.”
I finish the interview with one question – why should people engage with the Industry Trust and Lovemovies.ie? “Because if you Love movies enough to pay for them – then we get to make more great films,” says Alison.
For more information visit www.lovemovies.ie
