The Sting-an insider’s guide to film piracy

Piracy comes in two guises – hard copy (physical goods) and soft copy (electronic files). Press and check discs are one of the largest sources of pirated films.

Hard copy piracy, e.g. DVDs copied in Asia or Russia and made available on the black market, has been prevalent for years. It is largely controlled by organised crime, with black market distributors able to press and ship DVDs from Asia for less than $1.

There are a number of ways this pirated copy is obtained:

• Cinemas:
Films in a cinema are recorded with a digital camera that can then be easily copied to DVD, VHS or VCD format (or posted on the internet for download). This is normally the worst quality pirated product.

• Screeners: