The Motion PictureAssociation of America (MPAA) has stepped up its anti-piracy campaign on theeve of ShoWest, teaming up with the National Association of Theatre Owners(NATO) and its Canadian counterparts to launch an online theatre employeetraining programme.

FightFilmTheft.org isalso supported by the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association (CMPDA)and The Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada (MPTAC).

The programme teachestheatre employees how to identify and prevent illegal recording of films intheatres. Research reveals that more than 90% of copyright infringements inNorth America stem from illegal camcording in theatres.

"Theatre employeesare the first line of defense against this growing criminal act ofpiracy," MPAA chairman and chief executive officer Dan Glickman said."We are grateful for their efforts in the fight against film theft."

"Camcorder piracy isa serious, worldwide problem that hurts not only people who make the movies andwork in theatres, but also consumers, who end up with bad quality, counterfeitDVDs," said NATO president and chief executive officer John Fithian added.