Proud pirates can expect education: IPAF

A quarter of Australians revealed in a survey as "pirates and proud" will be targeted for re-education, a copyright group said.

The Newspoll survey of just under 1400 people was conducted last October but released only today.

It coincided with the launch of the first part of a new anti-piracy campaign by the Intellectual Property Awareness Foundation that targeted accidental pirates, those who broke the law unwittingly. The group's members included the Motion Picture Association, TiVO, Foxtel, Video Ezy, Blockbuster studios.

"Pirates and proud" respondents would be targeted separately at some point over the next two years.

The survey

Accidental pirates accounted for 34 percent of the Newspoll survey respondents.

Another 24 percent who were be mostly 18 to 24-year-old men were "pirates and proud of it".

It found another 38 percent were "absolutely morally against piracy and weren't involved" with the rest described as uninterested.

Accidental pirates

IPAF chief executive officer Gail Grant told iTnews the two-year campaign to accidental pirates included broadcast advertisements, blog and Twitter feed to get them to adjust their ways.

TV ads would run on Foxtel and Austar from today and be on 900 cinema screens by the end of the week. Grant hoped free-to-air stations would also screen it soon.

She said IPAF had conducted eight focus groups with the accidental pirates before starting the campaign.

"They are very confronted if you tell them they're pirates," Grant said.

"They actually told us they see piracy as wrong but they don't recognise their own actions as being piracy."

Grant likened it to being against gambling but then "going to the casino every day".

Am I a pirate?

A website launched by IPAF invited internet users to take a quick multiple choice quiz to determine whether or not they were an "accidental pirate".

Users were asked if they downloaded TV shows from the internet for free before they were screened in Australia; doing so "could" make the user a pirate, IPAF said.

Grant said the wording was "careful [to] make sure we're giving people the right information".

"There are number of places you can download [content] legally," she said.

"We want people to be careful of the sites they go on. That's why the wording is as careful as we can be while still informing them."

Grant said IPAF would "love to" create and publish a list of legal streaming options that Australians could use to watch copyright material - for example, Fixplay - in the future.

Questions targeted the legality of making copies of rented DVDs, travellers buying cheap DVDs while holidaying in South East Asia, downloading new-release films from the internet and buying DVD-Rs from a car boot sale.

Answering no to all questions gave users the chance to win a $5 new release DVD rental voucher.

Active pirates in the crosshairs

Grant warned Australian users described as "pirates and proud" to expect anti-piracy education to find them, wherever they were.

"We're planning education and communications to go to particularly to that group," she said.

"They're technologically advanced and engaged [so it's about] how we talk to them on the platforms they're on all the time."