Theaters to post movie piracy warning

Online downloads targeted in PSAs

ASPEN, Colorado (AP) -- The next battle in the entertainment industry's war against online swapping of movies will soon be waged in theaters.

Fox Group chief executive officer Peter Chernin said Tuesday that a leading theater chain has agreed to run public service announcements before movies that warn against copyright infringement.

The spots say downloading movies instead of buying a ticket or a video would hurt the industry's behind-the-scenes workers, including makeup artists and custodians, said Chernin.

He would not name the theater chain involved.

"These are people's livelihoods at stake. It's not just a bunch of fat-cat Hollywood people," Chernin said during the last day of the Aspen Summit, an annual gathering of information technology leaders held by The Progress and Freedom Foundation think tank.

'The world's largest copy machine'

Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Malcolm said 500,000 movies a day are downloaded illegally, calling the Internet "the world's largest copy machine."

"Stealing is stealing is stealing, whether it's done with sleight of hand by sticking something in a pocket or it's done with the click of a mouse," he said.

Chernin argued that piracy will not only hurt creators of original content but also consumers if movie studios lose so many ticket sales that they begin cutting expenses.

Gary Shapiro, head of the Consumer Electronics Association, suggested there should be a distinction between stealing real property and copying intellectual property like music or movies.

"When you copy intellectual property, there may or may not be harm," he said. "They assume that every copy made is a copy lost. That's not always the case."

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