Online piracy is becoming an increasing risk to the UK film and television industry and is big business, with illegal copying of digital content costing the UK’s creative industries £1 billion every year. Despite a variety of on-demand services available for both films and television programmes, a recent study found there were 54 million illegal downloads of TV programmes and 30 million of films over just three months last year.
Anti-piracy specialist DiCopSys has launched Open DCS, designed to help combat this problem. The free service will record, send DMCA notices, and monitor take down visibility of any copyright infringements that the user can find of their material. Users can also purchase search credits and gain access to the DiCopSys search engine, which will search the internet for pirated copies of the user’s product.
Ian Noble, the director of DiCopSys (pictured), said, “One of the most common arguments is that online piracy only results in small profit losses for rich Hollywood studios. However the reality is that online piracy affects every creative industry, and severely impacts on the livelihoods of everyday people.
“Our new Open DCS system allows anyone, whether that’s an established producer or someone just starting out in the industry, to take steps to remove illegally infringing content on the internet for an affordable price.”
DiCopSys uses US and European legislation to seek out and serve take down notices to offending websites and individuals.
