‘Get It Right’ for the future of the creative industries

25 Apr 2017 BY Marianne Grant

4 mins
Filmmaking Picture
Filmmaking Picture

Marianne Grant from the 'Get It Right From a Genuine Site' campaign reveals why the worlds of film, TV, music, games, books, and sports, have come together to reduce online copyright infringement by making it easy for people to find sources of genuine content and raising awareness of the importance of the creative industries.

The internet has changed the way we consume media and content. For the generations growing up online today there have never been so many opportunities to access content or so few barriers to being content creators themselves. Thanks to Into Film and similar projects, more young people than ever know the buzz of making something for others to enjoy - and appreciate the effort and time investment involved in doing that.

Together with educators, we want to make children and families aware that every time you watch, listen, read or play, you make a choice - either to support the content, artists and creativity that you love, and help them flourish and grow, or to contribute nothing. By supporting what you love, you invest in creating more of it, whilst also ensuring that there continue to be amazing opportunities within the creative industries.

Many young people whose love of film and content is kindled by Into Film aspire to a career in our creative industries. These industries, including film, music, television, photography, sport and computer software, support around 2.8 million UK jobs each year, contributing about 18 billion in exports around the world and about 10 million per hour to the UK economy. That's why building on young peoples respect for the value of creativity by instilling the importance of getting content from genuine sites and sources is so important for the future of content and their own future careers.

The 'Get it Right From a Genuine Site' campaign is taking a whole new approach to reducing online copyright infringement. We know people are more likely to want to source and purchase content legally when they are aware of the time it took for the filmmaker, artist or writer to produce it and understand more about the creative process. We also know that legal sources of content like music, films, TV programmes, books and sports programming - have never been more easily available online and that illegal file-sharing is looking like an increasingly bad idea.

For these reasons, we are working with some of the UK's premier creative talents to share how much time they invest in their art, and those behind the scenes like British producer Stephen Garrett, who brought le Carré's Night Manager to screens around the world. You can see their posts and contribute your own declaration on social media at getitrightfromagenuinesite.org

This is not the only component of the campaign. Since January, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the UK have been sending out educational emails to internet account holders when their broadband internet connection has been used to upload and share illicitly files that contain copyrighted content. These emails outline the details of the file sharing as well as providing links to help recipients of the emails and others use their internet accounts to find genuine sources of content in future. 

Some recipients may not know their account has been used to upload and share files, for example if one of their children has been illicitly downloading content from a file sharing site and then - knowingly or not - sharing it on a public file sharing network without their parent's knowledge.

Encouraging these conversations about content with young people is important because file sharing sites are just one source of pirated content. It's common that people who visit file sharing sites also visit and use other infringing sources such as illicit streaming sites, direct download sites, streaming and file sharing Apps and TV add-ons.

In addition, pirate sites and other sources of infringing content which have no age verification or other controls to manage what is displayed are more likely to host adverts for illegal or offensive material, which can then be visible to children using the internet. Internet penetration in households with dependent children is near 100 per cent and research from the London School of Economics shows that 12 per cent of European 9-16 year olds say that they have been bothered or upset by something on the internet.

Illegal downloading and file sharing is also one of the most common means for distributing and propagating viruses and other malware, plus it usually slows down a home broadband connection for all household members using it.

'Get It Right From a Genuine Site' is working to raise awareness of the these issues. Together with you, we hope to make sure people make the right choice when they watch, listen, read or play - and in turn help the creative industries continue to flourish.

Get It Right From a Genuine Site logo

Marianne Grant , ‘Get It Right From a Genuine Site’ campaign

The ‘Get It Right From a Genuine Site’ campaign is a coalition of rights holders, creative talents and ISPs – supported by the Government- that aims to support the UK creative industry, reduce illegal distribution and consumption.

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