Pirates of the high street

Sales of pirate DVDs have reached "epidemic proportions" while law enforcers struggle. As the UK's anti-piracy taskforce prepares to publish an extensive report on the problem, why are people buying them and what's the quality like?

According to Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact) investigator Jim Angell, everyone is buying them - not just those on a tight budget. And the problem has reached "epidemic proportions" in the UK.

"It's the 'want value' of getting something before it's on general release," he says. "It's a cross section of people, I suppose younger kids are more likely than people in their 20s and 30s. But if you go into the markets you get grans buying them and mums and dads for their kids."

Fact estimates three million pirate DVDs will have been confiscated by the end of 2004, representing perhaps just 5% of the total in the UK. The forged DVD industry is thought to have made more than £400m last year.

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