Professional Motion Picture Production and Distribution NEWS

Movie piracy could sap the industry of $US15 billion over the next four years if bold measures are not taken immediately, the Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA) says.

MPAA senior vice-president John Malcolm says that the film business could suffer the same losses that the music business has unless civil and criminal actions, coupled with aggressive public outreach, do not stem the growth of illegal file trading and worldwide DVD bootlegging.

"If that happens, it means there are a lot of people in the film industry that will be out of work and out of luck," Mr Malcolm said.

Ronald Wheeler, senior vice-president in content protection at Fox Entertainment Group, says the studios are trying to harness emerging technologies like peer-to-peer file trading, the legitimacy of which could be enhanced by using filtering software to block infringement.

"The good news is that at the end of the day, this can be done. It's not an intractable problem," Mr Wheeler said. "Technology can be our friend, not just a foe."

Citing industry figures, Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn says that 92 per cent of the movies made available for illegal downloading originate from camcording in a theatre.

As a result, Mr Hahn notes the city's effort to criminalise such videotaping as well as arrest people for street-level sales of bootleg DVDs.

"To have all this work just ripped off by someone is not only aggravating, but if it continues, we won't have an industry - it will suck the life out of it," Mr Hahn said.

He notes that entertainment represents a $US30 billion slice of the Los Angeles economy, employing about 200,000 people.

-- Hollywood Reporter/VNU