Anti-Piracy and Film: Effective Tools

A few numbers

• It is at their release or when they win an award at a festival that films are most at risk of being pirated (Cannes Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival…)
• No type of film is safe from piracy. In fact, when viewers are surveyed, most of those who consume illegal content pirate blockbusters without guilt – they are considered to generate enough revenue that piracy does not particularly hurt them – but independent films are just as affected. For these films, piracy often stems from difficulty finding the content – the film is not available in their country, or at any rate is not distributed near them.
• A film is most at risk 12 to 15 weeks after its release. For works presented at events and festivals, piracy often begins before the official theatrical release because copies are made available to jury members.
• Piracy, although difficult to quantify, is estimated to represent about 25% of the film industry’s revenue, and these figures appear to be rising. If you work in the film industry, it is very likely that your product has already been pirated.

How do you fight it?

It is of course possible to take these steps yourself.

To do so, you need to carry out constant monitoring in several steps.

• Carry out an in-depth search on different search engines
• Have knowledge of the sites that publish illegal content – whether torrent, streaming or direct download. These sites constantly shut down only to be replaced right away by others, sometimes several times a month, so you need to know the field well to follow an opaque activity that keeps moving.
• Be present daily on social networks, groups, forums, Discord servers and Reddit threads where a lot of information on piracy is exchanged.
• You then need to find the source file and submit takedown notices – to the search engine so that the results no longer appear, and to the host. Because of the many technical screens pirates use, this step is often long and complicated without experience and contacts.
• You also need to make sure that all types of pirate sites are covered – streaming sites, which account for a large share of pirated film content (70 to 80%), but also torrents and sites offering direct download (DDL).

These actions must be done every day – on the networks everything moves very fast, and the appearance of a single file at one end of the web can quickly turn into several thousand pirate links within a few days.

AgencePDN gets this kind of content removed: see our Film and TV service.

Such work requires several hours a day, especially without experienced agents and suitable tools, which can be very tedious. In addition, without specialized tools to sweep the networks, it is easy to miss a leak, which can cause a significant loss of revenue.

Our team of experts has developed cutting-edge cybersecurity tools and suitable processes, drawing on years of experience in which we encountered a large number of varied problems that let us adapt our approach and make the procedure transparent, fast and effective for our clients.

The success factors we have observed for limiting piracy are:

• Responsiveness: the faster the first pirate link is removed, the less the networks will be contaminated. In the fight against piracy, time is an essential factor. A single source file will often be picked up by hundreds of sites within 24 to 48 hours. If that file is removed before it spreads, the work is protected – at least for a time.
• Suitable automated tools, combined with human verification: this combination makes it possible to carry out the steps efficiently and quickly, while making sure no legal file is removed – some unscrupulous companies skip the human verification step to cut costs, and your promotional files and trailers can then end up removed during a DMCA notice. Thanks to our method, which includes human verification at every step by our experts, this will not happen.
• Direct access to certain high-traffic sites. A site like YouTube can represent a colossal loss of revenue if a full version of your film appears there. At PDN we are moderators for YouTube, 1fichier and other hosts, which lets us make sure the content is removed from the moment the infringement is spotted.

In the case of leaks, a cybersecurity specialist such as PDN can also conduct an in-depth investigation into the source of the piracy. If the compromising file comes from your company, you can then take the necessary steps to fix the problem.

You can therefore perfectly well carry out all these steps yourself to limit the piracy of your products. But this means devoting several hours a day for several months if you want to see results. In addition, without anti-piracy experience and suitable tools, your efforts will inevitably be less effective and more time-consuming. And large numbers of pirate links on the networks mean a potentially major loss of revenue, which no company can afford.

Leaving pirate links online is like leaving an open bag unattended on a table in a nightclub – maybe no one will steal your wallet and your phone, but the odds that it will happen are still very high.

At PDN we have designed suitable tools and processes and have staff with long experience in anti-piracy. Do not hesitate to call on us so you can devote yourself fully to your work.

Join us for our next article on copyright.