Recording and film industries combine anti-piracy efforts in Mexico

Mexico City, 2nd April 2008

The recording and film industry organisations in Mexico have joined together to create a new anti-piracy body that represents both their interests. The Asociación Protectora de Cine y Música México (APCM) will tackle the problems of both disc and digital piracy in the country.

Mexico is one of the major markets for music and film in Latin America (it is the number 10 music market internationally), but also has one of the most serious piracy problems globally. The country is most affected by CD and DVD piracy, with a 65% music piracy rate in 2006 and an illegal market worth US$180 million. Mexico also has a growing digital piracy problem.

Today's move follows the successful combination of the anti-piracy efforts of the recording and film industries in Brazil in April 2007.

APCM's launch was endorsed by the Mexican Attorney General's Office (PGR), which is responsible for investigating and pursuing federal crimes across the country.

"We are very enthusiastic about this association. We firmly believe that through the union of our forces in Mexico via APCM, we can obtain better results than the ones that could be obtained by our entities individually", said John Malcolm, Executive Vice president and Director of Anti-piracy International Operations of the Motion Picture Association.

"The fact that the Attorney General's Office supports this merge between both industries' anti-piracy teams is a clear signal that we are going the right way. We have a lot of faith that this project will be a complete success, and will serve as an example for other countries and institutions to imitate", says Mr. Vázquez, General Director of IFPI Latin America.

The new General-Director of APCM, Lic. Jaime Campos, says: "APCM Mexico will be dedicated to helping the authorities in tackling physical and digital piracy and protecting the rights of record and film producers. The combination of the two operations will significantly simplify administrative processes. It is much less burdensome to have to file only one joint complaint to the authorities when we uncover cases of pirates violating Mexican copyright law."

C.P. Fernando Hernández, the General Director of Amprofon, the recording industry trade body, adds: "Recorded music and film have similar issues with mass piracy, so by working together we can better utilise our resources to strike against this problem. Copyright piracy represents the greatest threat to the future of the Mexican film and music industries, with all that bring in terms of economic growth and a vibrant local culture."