While trying to find what are the most pirated asian films in 2009, I stumbled upon an interesting article about an anti-piracy campaign called ‘I’m a Good Downloader‘, it was launched last October during the Pusan Film Fest.
They took Haeundae (Tidal Wave) as an example. For you information, it’s the biggest success of 2009 in South Korea, it made $68,976,779. And it’s been sold to several countries around the world (France, UK, Canada…). But, few days after its chinese theatrical release, they say it was also illegally downloaded about 10,000 times + DVD bootlegs sold in the streets…
Because this campaign is supported by some famous cool korean stars, one of them said “If we don’t solve this problem of illegal downloading, it will downgrade the quality of filmmaking, which in turn negatively affects moviegoers“. Another one added “Haeundae recently suffered from piracy. This negatively affects our country as a whole, and I hope this can be an opportunity to change our downloading habits“.
Even though some of their points are really bad, it’s the first time I see an anti-piracy campaign bringing the idea of ‘changing habits’, treating users not like a bunch of serial killers murdering the Cinema Industry. Unfortunately, the article doesn’t mention anything about indie films, knowing most of them try to exist but only manage around 10,000 admissions locally. It’d interesting to know if somehow, ‘illegal downloads’ have helped films like Boat, Milky Way Liberation Front… (because indie films can be cool, too).
And here’s a TV spot, fighting illegal downloading has never been so damn cool:
You can watch more of them, and check the website to listen to the nice little song.