Led by The Host director Bong Joon-ho and the Korean Directors' Network, 13 film-related organisations yesterday in Seoul declared the launch of a campaign against illegal film downloads.

Participating groups include the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), the Korean Association of Film Art & Industry (KAFAI), Korean Motion Pictures Producers' Association, the Film Actors' Association of Korea, the Korean Directors' Network, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Information and Communications, the leading portal website Naver and film-specialty cable broadcaster Channel CGV.

Notables in attendance also included Old Boy director Park Chan-wook, KOFIC chairperson An Cheong-sook, Kim Dong-ho, director of the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF), and Sunhee Cho, director of the Korean Film Archive.

The filmmakers screened a campaign spot featuring actors such as well-respected veteran Ahn Sung-ki. The message it conveys is that if illegal film downloading continues, good Korean films will become harder to see in the future. The spot goes on to ask the public to join in the campaign.

Spreading the word online and offline about protecting copyrights and establishing a culture of legal distribution, the campaign is to take place until the end of this year, with special activities to be carried out during the upcoming 12th edition of PIFF (Oct 4-12).

Director Lee Hyun-seung at the launching ceremony yesterday said: 'Film-related industries are suffering severe consequences from reckless illegal film downloads. We need to change how internet users perceive the problem and make multilateral efforts in all related industries.'

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