AFACT founder resigns

The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) has lost its founder and one of its key public faces after annoucing that Adrianne Pecotic resigned today.

Pecotic will leave the company - which represents the rights of content owners including the major Hollywood studios - on November 15, 2010.

Pecotic set up AFACT in 2004 after working at Grundy Television, and was also a founding director of the Intellectual Property Awareness Foundation - best known for its ‘Accidental Pirate' campaign.

Pecotic was also a regular face in the audience of public hearings in the high-profile copyright battle between AFACT and ISP iiNet, which is currently awaiting the outcome of an appeal by the film industry.

An AFACT statement said Pecotic had "successfully influenced government and industry bodies to work together to amend intellectual property legislation for the digital age".

"I have fought hard to raise awareness of the impact of piracy on the 50,000 Australians who earn their living in our creative industry and deliver a balanced approach to protecting our industry from copyright theft," she said in the statement.

"It is heartening to see the progress we have made working alongside state and federal government and law enforcement officers whose cooperation and efforts have been invaluable to me in this role."

Pecotic was moving back to a 'frontline' film industry role, the statement said.