Mr Edward Neubronner, Director of Operations, Asia Pacific, Motion Picture Association
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Good evening
1. I am delighted to be here this evening to support the launch of the new trailer entitled “What Are You Really Burning?” by Motion Picture Association, one of our Honour Intellectual Property (HIP) Alliance members. IPOS is indeed pleased to be a partner them in this meaningful project.
2. Piracy hurts economies in places where movies are sold, displayed and broadcasted. Movie piracy has an enormous negative impact on media industry professionals like filmmakers and actors and ultimately the consumers. It jeopardises the creative process and robs economies of the benefits from having a healthy movie industry.
3. The Business Times reported last week (23 April 08) that a recent study by the global accounting firm, Ernst and Young, showed that India’s burgeoning entertainment industry lost as much as US$4 billion and 800,000 direct jobs each year due to counterfeiting and piracy. Movie piracy has reportedly caused a total of output loss for US industries of US$20.5 billion a year.
4. The key problem faced by the movie industry is copyright infringement through the illegal sale of VCDs, DVDs and videotapes of movie copies, as well as online piracy. Piracy negatively impacts on the profitability of the industry’s profitability and jobs and in turn, Singapore’s knowledge economy.
5. To deter counterfeits and piracy, the industry has developed sophisticated labels and markings as well as anti-piracy movie trailers such as the new movie trailer that is launched today by MPA. IPOS is also working hard to help fight piracy by organising many outreach programmes to educate the public to reject piracy and respect the rights of intellectual property owners. I hope that you and discerning consumers can join us in this movement against piracy and embrace a culture that respects and rewards creative efforts.
6. With the launch of this new trailer, I hope it will encourage more movie-goers to “Say NO! to Piracy!”. By not buying pirated movies, Singaporeans will be supporting our very own movie industry, local producers, actors and actresses.
7. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our partners for their strong support in honouring intellectual property. Let’s work together to protect our film industry and keep the creativity alive! Thank you.