Category: West TV
Date: 31.10.2005
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Wallace and Gromit are facing a new challenge...the curse of fake DVDs.
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Within weeks of their latest movie hitting our cinema screens a Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Inside Out West investigation, broadcasting tonight (31 October 2005) at 7.30pm on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ ONE, has discovered pirate DVDs are being sold in Bristol for as little as Β£5.
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The DVDs are poor quality copies of the film.
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Reacting to the discovery of counterfeit DVDs, Sean Clarke from Aardman Animations says: "They do not show the film in its full glory - and that is a huge kick in the teeth for everybody at Aardman who put all their effort into making this film.
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"I think something needs to be done pretty quickly. DVD has grown recently and so has the piracy issue. The quickest way to get on top of the problem is to make it illegal to buy it."
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June Vickery who, until this week, ran the Hollywood Video Library in Bath selling and hiring legitimate DVDs, does not think of dodgy DVDs as a victimless crime.
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Her business has just closed down, partly because of the easy availability of cheap pirated DVDs.
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She says: "We have been here 23 years now and we've enjoyed it. It's not for not loving the business any more, but it's getting harder. Piracy is a big part of that.
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"I fear with piracy, it takes away that diversity. It'll give you whatever the latest blockbuster is at the cinema. But you can't go to a pirate and get Hamlet, Great Expectations, Gone with the Wind, or any of the classics. It greatly diminishes film as a source of entertainment and inspiration."
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Tonight's edition of Inside Out West on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ ONE discovers that the fake DVDs are part of a much wider problem in Bristol, which also involves counterfeit clothing.
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Much of it is sold at a market held on Sundays at St Philips Marsh near Temple Meads.
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Mike Roylance, from the UK's Anti-Counterfeiting Group, is horrified at the scale of the problem in Bristol and wants action to be taken now.
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He says: "I travel around the markets all the time and this has to be classed as one of the worst I've seen in recent years.
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"It's possibly the worst market in the country, if not one of the top four or five."
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Inside Out West is on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ ONE (West) at 7.30pm tonight (Monday 31 October 2005).
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The programme is the last in the current series.
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