Illegal movie downloads in France

The number of illegal movie downloads in France is set to overtake box office ticket sales if trends continue. Figures published by the anti piracy bodies Thomson and Advestigo indicate that a massive 450,000 illegal movie downloads take place every day.

The director general of l'Association de Lutte Contre la Piraterie Audiovisuelle , Fr�d�ric Delacroix, said: ?This is a major phenomenon which could put the whole cinema and audiovisual industry in danger.?

He said that France was one of the worst offenders for illegal movie downloads. ?The number of subscribers to fast broadband connections is directly proportional to the trend of illegal downloads. These fast lines enable people to make big downloads like films.?

French movie producers Gaumont have employed the anti-piracy bodies Thomson and Advestigo to monitor illegal download traffic.

According to this study more than 10 million copies of films are downloaded each month; 14.1 million in June and a peak of 16.6 last December. The figures are pushing past the number of people who pay to see films in cinemas ? 12 million in May.

In the first six months of the year they remained below with 62 million illegal downloads compared to 90 million cinema tickets sold. Most films downloaded are American (66%) with France in second position (19%).

The most popular film for pirates at the moment is Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis a surprise box office smash which pulled in 20 million viewers at the cinema.