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| "Barras Wars" http://www.bbfans.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=18683 |
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| Author: | JimD [ 22 May 05, 0:55 ] |
| Post subject: | "Barras Wars" |
Scotland’s reputation is being dragged through the mud by movie pirates — and the Executive needs to do something now. That was the claim last night after thousands of copies of the new Star Wars movie were sold illegally at markets. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith, was on sale at Glasgow’s Barras yesterday for just a fiver — despite the film only being shown in cinemas for the first time on Thursday. A stallholder told Sunday Post reporters it was a “great copy well worth watching’’. Another said they had just got their hands on the film on Friday and sales were going well. Now the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), who represent US and British movie companies, say the situation is giving Scotland a bad name and has to be dealt with. FACT’s Scottish investigator, John McGowan, said, “The Scottish Executive needs to put together a national strategy to deal with the piracy industry in Scotland because they are seriously underestimating the harm it is causing the country’s reputation abroad. “The Executive is trying to encourage hi-tech industries to invest in Scotland but they don’t seem to understand the intellectual property rights of these companies are their lifeblood.” The new Star Wars film broke blockbuster records in North America as the highest box office earner, grossing $50 million (£27 million), in a single day. A US consulting firm calculated pirate copies could cost the distributors £340 million in lost ticket sales. The bootleg copy is believed to have been stolen from LucasArts Ltd, Star Wars director George Lucas’s company. The film appeared on the Internet on Thursday, hours after cinemagoers worldwide had queued up to watch it for the first time. John McGowan added, “We picked up a copy on Friday and it appears the film was downloaded from a special forum on the Internet where high-ranking individuals in the piracy world can access and download movies first, before copying and selling them to the public.” The copy we bought for £5 is understood to be a “work print copy’’ and has a time code running along the top of the screen. Official DVDs of the movie probably won’t go on sale until Christmas. One buyer who reckoned he’d got a bargain said, “If my wife and I take my three kids to the cinema it costs us more than £20 by the time you pay them in and buy them a drink and some sweets. “I bought the DVD for a fiver and I’ll pass it round the family once we’ve seen it.’’ SundayPost |
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