The Gesellschaft zur Verfolgung von Urheberrechtsverletzungen e.V. (GVU, Society for the Prosecution of Copyright Infringement) is a registered association under German law. According to its own description it works for the video game industry and film industry and helps to protect intellectual property and to counter the illegal distribution of copied materials. For this purpose, the association cooperates with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA, now the MPA).
The GVU was founded in the spring of 1984 and entered the register of associations in February 1985 for the first time. The headquarters were located first in Hamburg, since 2008 they have been in Berlin-Mitte. The GVU became known to a wider public by participating in campaigns such as "pirates are criminals“ and investigations in the Kino.to case.
History
Early years Against the backdrop of a rapidly increasing demand for movies on VHS and an increase in "piracy" at the same time, film industry representatives agreed in early 1984 to set up a separate company to combat illegal distribution of copyrighted material. The decision was primarily driven by the motivation of the industry, to detach from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The longtime chairman of the Bundesverband Audiovisuelle Medien (BVV, Federal Association of Audiovisual Media) and Managing Director of the German subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Bodo Schwartz, was key in the establishment of GVU.
The establishment of the GVU as a legally registered association was formally announced in the autumn of 1984 at the HiFi trade fair in Düsseldorf. The first constitution was adopted on December 17, 1984. It first entered the register of the city of Hamburg on February 27, 1985, finalising the establishment of the association on that day. Next to Bodo Schwartz, Paul Miller of the Cinema International Corporation (CIC) and Manfred Goller of the Verband der Filmverleiher (VDF, Association of Film Distributors) were members of the founding board.
Software Era
After exclusive funding of the GVU by the movie industry in its initial years, the organisations range of tasks expanded in 1997 to include computer games. On the one hand this was due to the parallels between illegal copies of films and games - both in the production and distribution - and on the other hand, the simpler distribution of unauthorized material over the emerging Internet. Sony Computer Entertainment’s membership of the GVU in 1997 initiated the membership of the entire Entertainment Software Association in the GVU in the following year.
In 2000, Microsoft entered the GVU as the first member of the software industry, which represented a significant milestone for the work of the GVU and directed the attention of the general public to the association. Simultaneously, this resulted in an expansion of the range of GVU’s tasks. As early as in 2001, the GVU took over the administration of the organization SAFE, which is responsible for the fight against copyright infringement in Switzerland. At the same time, cooperation intensified with the Austrian Verein für Anti-Piraterie (VAP, Association for Anti-Piracy) in the film and video industry, so the entire German-speaking area was fully covered.
Management
The statutes of the GVU provides that the board consists of a chairman and at least three others. The GVU is represented jointly by at least two board members. Currently (as of November 2012) the committee includes Vincent de La Tour (Chairman), Dr. Holger Ensslin, Violetta Psofiou, Ralph Tübben, Alexander Skipis and Dr. Bernd Fakesch. According to the Commercial Register there are committees for finance, legal and technology. Next to the executive board the association has a full-time executive director who is responsible for the daily operations and reports to the Board. Dr. Matthias Leonardy currently holds this position, who previously worked as a general counsel for the German eBay Group.
Work and structure of the GVU was mainly characterized by Bodo Schwartz, who was on the executive board for over 20 years and led it as Chairman for a long time. He also represented the GVU to media and shaped the image of the association in the public, including through various interviews. Schwartz retired from his position of CEO of Twentieth Century Fox in 2002, and retired from the GVU in October 2006. His retirement speech in late January 2007 was held by Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger.
Members
In 2011, a total of about 50 companies and organizations were represented as a member of the GVU. In the field of film this includes virtually all major Hollywood studios, such as Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Studios. Members from the gaming industry include Ubisoft, Microsoft, Activision, Konami and Koch Media as well as respective affiliates of the major film studios. In addition, in its Annual Report 2011, the service providers arvato, Cinram, OpSec and Rovi got quoted as members.
A special role is played by the membership of numerous professional organizations, in which the interests and positions of certain industries are bundled. So for example currently the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI, Federal Association of Music Industry), the Bundesverband Informationswirtschaft, Telekommunikation und neue Medien (BITKOM, German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media) and the Bundesverband Interaktive Unterhaltungssoftware (BIU, Federal Association of Interactive Entertainment Software) belong to the GVU. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), one of the foremost organizations against copyright infringement in the English speaking world, is a full member too.
Overall, in 2011, nine organizations, 21 films- and 15 games providers and five other companies supported the GVU. Over the last five years the number of members has remained largely constant. However, as a result of the 2008 financial crisis, the association lost some companies from the movie industry. The most prominent example in this case is the production and distribution company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which in 2007 was still listed as a member of the GVU, but no longer in the following year. MGM went into administration in 2010 and withdrew from other industry associations.
Since 2007, the GVU has published annually a list of its members. Organizations and companies indirectly involved in the GVU through third-party associations are not explicitly listed in it.
Activities
The activities of the Association focuses on preventing economic losses of its members, resulting from unauthorized copying and its dissemination. The GVU estimated the loss at several hundred million euros annually. In addition to those defined in the constitution, the association based its efforts primarily on copyright law.
Investigations
The association applies a large part of its resources to the actual detection of copyright infringements. The action is driven by the view that government agencies alone cannot monitor the entire market for unlicensed content, which is why the GVU tries to fill this gap. The employees of the GVU, including former police officers and commissioners, systematically scour the relevant sources of illegal copies, especially on the Internet. Unlike other organizations, by its own admission the GVU does not primarily aim at end-consumers, rather, it targets mainly the "big fishes". Besides those people who for example record a movie at the cinema or make copies from a computer game, these increasingly include the operators of so-called Trackers.
The GVU mainly focuses on large, internationally active release groups where copyrighted products are reproduced and distributed systematically, especially for profit. In its work, the association - if possible - accesses to public registers, for example, to reveal the real people behind a shell company. Due to their private-sector activity, the GVU may not identify IP addresses directly. Instead the association directs this as evidence to the relevant authorities. This is usually done as part of criminal procedure, which then leads to public prosecutorial investigations. Unless a criminal procedure is actually opened, an employee of the association often act as an expert witness. Not every complaint will automatically lead to a successful prosecution, for example the GVU had to make a total of three applications in the case of Kino.to.
As far as it is known to date, the GVU does not claim damages from warez users according to civil law. Instead the association allows its members the freedom to make possible claims for losses incurred. However, the association engages in strongly communicating its legal opinion in individual cases. Particularly in cases related to so-called illegal streaming of copied content, many legal assessments and opinions remain debatable.
Public Relations
In addition to its investigative activities the GVU does intensive public relations, which aims to raise awareness of copyright infringement. In the years 2009 to 2011 members of the association participated in nearly 100 events and reached about 2.000 participants through their speeches. In addition, since the late 80s the GVU has offered seminars for police officers and prosecutors, where they can learn about the consequences of "piracy" as well as the activities of the association.
In 1990, the GVU launched a prevention program on the topic of holography, a technology making it easier for retailers and consumers to identify unauthorized copied media. In addition, the association was known to a wider audience through the campaign "Pirates are criminals". This was produced by a subsidiary of the Central Association of German Film Theatres, where the GVU sits on the advisory board. During the World Cup 2006 an action of the umbrella organization MPAA was supported by Pelé.
Since 2008, the GVU has performed annually the so-called ROOF-industry forum together with VAP and SAFE, which recently took place in the Kalkscheune venue in Berlin. At the event, lawyers, representatives of the games and movie industries are brought together with trade associations and other stakeholders under the slogan "prevention and education". In 2011, the study of digital content usage (short DCN study) received large attention, since it was the first to cover the specific uses of legal and illegal online content. The study was prepared by the GVU and the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (Federal Association of Music Industry) as well as the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (Association of German Book Trade).
Political Influence Beside the main activities, GVU also gives advice to politicians and represents its interests there. For example, the association - as well as others around the globe - requested a "piracy" warning. This should be presented to an Internet user as soon as it first wants to call a pirated copy, but this remains controversial in Germany. In the course of this particular position, the GVU criticized the Federal Ministry of Justice. Furthermore, the association has complained for years that in case of copyright infringement there is a right of access to Internet service providers, but this would fail due to the lack of storage of communication data ("web problem").
The GVU also calls to execute the missing third basket of the reform of copyright law at last. Likewise, the trend towards trivialisation of copyright infringement by individual politicians criticized repeatedly, most recently in an article by Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Paul van Dyk in TIME.
Proceedings