Industry Quells Illegal Movie Downloads

The German film and music industry is winning the war against illegal copies, it said at a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday. Although more people have the technology to make illegal copies, the number of pirated products has increased but not accordingly. Industry representatives said they expect losses of about €1 billion ($1.3 billion) due to piracy this year. They credited the change to their controversial informational campaign "Hard But Fair: Web Pirates are Criminals," which was deemed "inhuman" by the Social Democratic Party and "questionable" by the advertising industry, according to German public TV Website tageschau.de. One of the ads, which were shown in nationwide movie theaters and on TV, showed a man on his first day in jail being eyed by other inmates, implying that he would be raped. The movie industry said it plans to continue its informational campaign in a more humorous tone.