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The distribution of illegal content affects not only the work of rights holders and providers, who suffer serious losses every year because of this, but also hinders the development of the whole industry. We talked to the marketing director of VOLIA, the director of the digital direction of “1+1 Media Group” and the head of the initiative “Clear Sky” (the association of “1+1 Media Group”, StarLightMedia, “Media Group Ukraine” and “Inter Media Group”) how legal content can defeat the pirate one. It is impossible to accurately determine the percentage of pirated content in Ukraine, because most of these products initially contain a part of the legal one. Therefore, in recent years, companies are actively and consolidated monitoring illegal content. One example was the joint case of StarLightMedia and VOLIA.

“It was an online platform that hosted both Ukrainian and international content. With the joint efforts of our company and StarLightMedia, as well as the FOX & National Geographic group, we were able to block access to this illegal content. ” Thanks to the efforts of “1+1 Media Group”, StarLightMedia, “Media Group Ukraine” and VOLIA, criminal proceedings were opened against the pirated online resource tvoetv.in.ua under – art. 176 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (violation of copyright and related rights - author's note). In this incident, “1+1 Media Group” estimated its losses at UAH 1 million 148 thousand.

In addition, the four largest media groups of Ukraine have joined their forces and created the “Clear Sky” initiative, the main goal of which is to develop the market for legal video content and fight piracy. Every four years “Clear Sky” publishes a list of sites that have been caught stealing. The initiative works in conjunction with the Ukrainian Anti-Piracy Association (UAPA), which regularly monitors brands that advertise on such resources.

In 2015, the initiative launched the campaign “Ignore pirates! Do not violate the copyright”. The campaign consisted of five videos in which advertisers, main players in the advertising market and Ukrainian stars inspired viewers not to watch content on pirate sites and not to place ads there. Recent legislative initiatives aimed at regulating market relations also contribute to fight piracy. A shift toward legality will also be blocking the signal on the satellite. “A law was passed that regulates the procedure for applying the copyright holder to a site that violates intellectual property rights. If the site does not respond or is responding, but this information is not enough to go to court, the right holder can contact the Internet host of this site,” – says Katerina Fedorova, head of the “Clean Sky” initiative. “This is the “compromise cooperation”, when major world right holders, having discovered the manifestation of their content on a particular resource, are notified, and in 99% of cases the resource removes this content from the platform. This is a labor-intensive process, but, probably, in this situation it is still the most effective,” – said Victoria Tsomaya.

At the same time, it is obvious that piracy cannot be won without a culture of consumption of content, when every user will realize that content has value and is intellectual property. However, as well as for the formation of any habit - it takes time. Nevertheless, today marketing activities that were implemented both in the world and in Ukraine come to the aid. For example, the campaign in the United States was successful, when famous actors — the favorites of the nation — warmed themselves at the fire barrels like the poor, because piracy deprived them of their work.

In the UK, for several years, an anti-piracy campaign “You make the movie” has been conducted. As part of the campaign, a short message was displayed on the screens of cinemas before the start of the sessions: “piracy is a crime”. By doing this, the organizers wanted to convey that simply downloading movies on the Internet is the same offense as the theft of a car, purse or TV. Later commercials appeared that ended with the phrase: “Your movie ticket helps support the film industry in the UK. Thank you".

It is important that in the world promotion of legal content is carried out not only among viewers, but also by the companies that produce this content. The Philippine Globe Telecom Company began anti-piracy propaganda called #PlayItRight during the Globe Independent Film Festival (GIFF). The main goal was to focus on the protection of intellectual property rights, as well as the need of use the licensed content by global and local partners. “In Ukraine, as I think, the campaign against recording in cinema was successful, when the police grabbed the guy who started recording the film on camera,” Katerina Fedorova says. “It’s also important to remember about the project of the film director Lyubomyr Levytsky "Give a chance to dream", where famous in art society people called not to use stolen intellectual property ".

The "Give a chance to dream" project was supported by the US Embassy in Ukraine, the American Chamber of Commerce, USAID and the American House. During the project, three social advertising videos were created. They were broadcasted on the channels of “1+1 Media Group”, StarLightMedia, “Media Group Ukraine”. In addition, that clips were available on the network with the hashtags # DAYSHANSMRІЇ, #GIVECHANCETODREAM. The project’s message is to demonstrate to young people that illegal consumption of films, software and music deprives their creators the chance to realize their vocation. The absolute advantage of legal content is the ability to view in HD-quality and with professional voice acting. “Platforms are investing in a good player and infrastructure that maintains a stable uptime.That is why legal content is more qualitative” – says Anna Tkachenko, director of strategy and development of 1+1 Media Group, director of digital-direction.