Trade unions join UK anti-piracy campaign

09:56 | Friday September 11, 2009

The Creative Coalition Campaign is a new partnership between the unions and entertainment companies to address illegal filesharing.

The unions, supported by the TUC, argue that piracy is costing their members thousands of jobs in the music, TV, film, sport and publishing industries.

The Coalition is calling on government to force ISPs to implement technical measures against serial infringers such as speed bumps, temporary suspension and, as a final resort, disconnection.

The creative industries overall employ around 1.8m people in the UK while a total of 800,000 people work in British TV, film, music and software companies.

Equity general secretary Christine Payne says, “The fact that so many jobs are under threat is seriously alarming. There has never been a more critical time to take bold action against those who are threatening the livelihoods of everyone working in the entertainment sector.”