MOVIE PIRACY ADS SET SAIL PUSH ON TO PREVENT THEFT, RE-EDUCATE.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

The Motion Picture Association of America is taking its campaign against movie piracy to college campuses in a ramped-up effort to educate students and parents about illegal movie downloading and its negative impact on the film industry.

Anti-piracy ads have begun appearing in daily newspapers and magazines nationwide as well as in more than 100 college newspapers, and, in the coming months, anti-piracy messages will begin appearing in movie theaters.

``We have to do more to convince that minority of people who are engaged in this unlawful and infringing activity of the wrongness of their conduct,'' said MPAA President and CEO Jack Valenti. ``We have to stem the tide of film theft online before it is too late.''

Piracy typically involves organized criminals who illegally record theatrical films with camcorders in the first hours and week of - and in some instances - even prior to a film's U.S. release. These copies appear in a matter of hours or days on the Internet on peer-to-peer networks, file transfer protocol sites, or Internet relay chat rooms. The MPAA estimates losses due to piracy at $3.5 billion a year, not including illegal downloading. The MPAA also cites outside research, which states that between 400,000 and 600,000 films are being illegally downloaded each day.

Valenti said he hopes the campaign will stem the illegal downloading but said the MPAA is keeping open the option of taking legal action against violators. Part of the urgency lies in the rapidly rising speeds of file-trafficking networks.

``If we don't react promptly ... we will live with intense regret,'' Valenti said.

The Recording Industry Association of America has launched several rounds of lawsuits against people - including minors - for illegally downloading music off of the Internet. The RIAA has blamed piracy for its plunging CD sales in recent years.

While the music industry has launched several legal music downloading services through which consumers can pay for songs, the movie industry is also working to expand its legitimate alternatives with services such as Movielink and CinemaNow.

Richard Doherty, director of Envisioneering Group, a Seaford, N.Y.-based advanced technology market research group, said the stakes are potentially higher for the movie industry than for music because of the various revenue streams that are impacted: box office, home video, pay-per-view and cable.

``Unfortunately, there's an entire generation now of well-intentioned young people who were taught to copy a file and hand it to the student next to them. It was only the slower speed of the Internet that held things up, not a change in mind-set. That has to be recognized and unlearned to some degree.''

Many of the young consumers interviewed by Envisioneering at such retail locations as Best Buy, Circuit City and Comp USA have said they don't always know when they are doing something wrong.

``There's a lot of ignorance out there that this educational program may be able to help with,'' Doherty said. ``You do have to educate.''

The MPAA is working with more than 120 colleges and universities to create and self-enforce codes of conduct for student computer use on campus and has also developed a partnership with Junior Achievement in which more than 1 million students in grades 5-9 learn about copyright and the protection of intellectual property.

Intellectual property attorney Evan R. Cox, a partner in the San Francisco office of the international law firm Covington and Burling, said while the educational campaign will not be able to eliminate all piracy, it might be effective in reducing the number of incidents.

``They've been able to learn from some of what the RIAA has done and put more emphasis on the educational side of things before they do anything heavy like litigation,'' Cox said. ``I think it's also wise of them to target the parental element and students. That is where you are hopefully going to make an impact on people who are still deciding how to behave.''

Greg Hernandez, [phone]

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com