FEDERATION AGAINST COPYRIGHT THEFT LTD.

Established in 1983, FACT works in three key areas:

Online piracy in all forms – with a focus on those distributing large volumes of illicit film and TV content.

Hard goods piracy – organised criminal networks operating in the UK (and worldwide) have adopted audiovisual piracy as a crime type to generate substantial illegal profits.

Prevention and detection of illegal recording in cinemas – over 90% of the counterfeit versions of movies originate initially from a copy recorded in a cinema.

FACT works closely across the UK with Police, Trading Standards, HM Revenue & Customs, UK Border Agency, Serious and Organised Crime Agency and the other agencies. FACT also has a close association with other industry enforcement bodies.

FACT’s Intelligence Unit plays a key role in assessing, analysing and reporting on the threats to its members’ businesses from criminal activity and tasks FACT’s own investigators as well as producing strategic documents available to partner agencies.

FACT plays a key role in creating awareness of the dangers associated with counterfeiting and continually gathers evidence to prove that film piracy is linked to other criminal activities, from benefit fraud to violence.

FACT has an important role in ensuring that the government and public understand the threat to the UK’s film and television industry and to the community at large from the growing threat of DVD and online piracy.

The seemingly innocent purchase of a cheap DVD from an irregular source can therefore have far reaching effects. For further examples of the effects of DVD piracy in the UK, please go to our Media Centre and view the latest case studies and statistics.

While the Federation is not a statutory body, it is accepted as a prosecution authority in its own right and facilitates the investigation and prosecution of those involved in this type of crime.