Anti-Piracy Groups Target Australia’s Children
Several prominent film and TV anti-piracy groups and other industry bodies have teamed up to create yet another group, this time with the aim, among other things, to teach Australia’s children that copyright infringement is wrong.
Anti-piracy and entertainment industry group acronyms are commonplace here on TorrentFreak – MPAA, RIAA, IFPI, MPA, BPI – they go on and on and on. Since we clearly don’t have anywhere near enough, today we can introduce our readers to a new one.
According to a new group called Intellectual Property Awareness Foundation (IPAF), it has been created by the Australian movie and TV industries to “promote the value of the industry by raising awareness, understanding and appreciation of intellectual property, and its role and value in society.”
Members of IPAF include Australia Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT), Motion Picture Association (MPA), Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia, Australian Visual Software Distributors Association and various cinema owners and DVD rental outlets such as Blockbuster.
According to a statement by the group, IPAF will engage in various marketing campaigns, some of which will penetrate Australia’s schools and directly target children. The group’s so-called “education and awareness” campaigns will encourage children to take the opinion that piracy has nothing but a negative impact, with an aim to “motivate a change in attitudes and behavior to reduce public demand for illegal copies of film and television programs.”
Previously Chair of the Australian Film Commission and current Vice President of the Screen Producers Association of Australia, Maureen Baron has been appointed Chair of the Foundation.
“I believe most Australians want to do the right thing. We know that once they become aware that copyright theft is wrong and the detrimental impact it has on the industry, most stop pirating,” she said in a statement. “It will be our job to educate, and to create understanding and appreciation of the value of intellectual property to that end.”
We’ll reserve judgment on this new group until we see their work, but we expect it will be simply more of the same, just a different acronym.
