Monthly Archives: June 2019

New Trend in Film Piracy: Movies that are ‘Defeminized’ and have ‘LGBT” scenes removed

A pirated version of the popular movie Avengers: Endgame recently appeared on illegal streaming sites that had feminist and gay scenes and dialogue removed. To cite a few: male heroes hugging, a key scene in which a male character is teaching his daughter to shoot a bow and arrow.

Since the work was pirated, the author’s identity is unknown. However, another ‘sanitized’ film that appeared a year ago was Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017). Approximately thirty percent of the movie’s content showing women making decisions, giving orders and fighting in battle was deleted. For example, scenes with Leia yelling at Poe were removed.

The anonymous Star Wars editor/censor left comments and called his work: “De-feminized fanedit” or “The Chauvinist Cut.” Viewers were outraged and blasted the ‘sanitized version’ in editorials and blog posts. Rightfully so. Besides the obvious reason, there was no story after so much of the original was deleted.

Was this the work of one person or part of a trend? And will more ‘sanitized’ pirate movie versions appear? Stay tuned. . .

World Anti-Counterfeiting Day

World Anti-Counterfeiting Day, now in its twentieth year, was held on June 6th by the Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group (GACG) with a goal to sharing best practices and information among its network of national and regional IPR enforcement and protection organizations that cover more than fifty countries. Among GACG’s members are: the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC) representing the United States; the Finnish Anti-Counterfeiting Group; and France’s Union De Fabricants.

One member, the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO, marked the occasion by releasing a report:  “2019 Status Reports on IPR Infringement.”  The document estimates the international trade in fake products at 121 billion Euros a year [roughly $136 billion] with a loss of 468,000 jobs.

Through its Observatory and its international associates, EUIPO is now funding a specialized crime unit within the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) to help tackle the counterfeiting problem.