BFI London Film Festival: Harvey Weinstein Declares War on Piracy

By emeadows
October 15, 2012

Producer Harvey Weinstein gave the keynote speech during the BFI London Film Festival, during which “the movie mogul pulled no punches when it came to the threat posed to moviemakers by piracy, particularly Internet piracy,” writes The Hollywood Reporter.
“I think we [as an industry] are being done a massive disservice by these companies,” Weinstein said of large companies like YouTube and others, “citing the fact that users can access nine clips of the movie ‘Chicago’ on YouTube and end up watching the whole thing for free,” reports THR.
“We need to rally filmmakers, content providers and musicians around the world,” Weinstein added, noting that those who work on movies are losing potential broadcast fees to video-sharing sites.
He applauded France for its efforts. “If an Internet company steals content, they shut it down,” Weinstein explained. “And let me tell you, Apple France, Yahoo France or Google France, none of them have gone out of business.”
Weinstein also spoke of the threat of consolidation among conglomerate-run U.S. networks.
“He warned of a time in the not-too-distant future whereby the 500-channel world we think offers diversity and choice actually is run by six companies,” explains the article.

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