YouTube star Caspar Lee is fronting a new campaign that aims to tackle copyright issues within online creative communities.
The Get it Right from a Genuine Site campaign has been backed by the UK government and hopes to promote originality and prevent piracy of creative content such as music and film.
Lee stars with influencer Snoochie Shi in a short video to promote the campaign, which is the first of a series of films.
“I’ve done pretty much every idea I’ve ever had,” says Lee in the video. “So now it’s about finding new ideas”.
Speaking to Shi, Lee referenced a 2016 film he’d made with fellow YouTuber KSI, Laid in America, that was made available as a digital download for £3.49.
But the film was downloaded illegally by several fans, prompting KSI to upload a seven-minute YouTube video calling on fans to “stop pirating [his] f***ing movie”.
Recalling the incident in the campaign video, Lee said: “It meant stopping the opportunity for us to make a second film, which doesn’t only affect us but its affects everyone that was a part of that film. Illegally downloading something is essentially stealing it.”
By choosing Lee, who boasts more than 2.9m followers on Instagram, to front the campaign, the government hopes its message will reach a young audience.
Nigel Adams, minister for sport, media and the creative industries, said: "We need to have the right environment where UK creative firms receive the value of their amazing content so that they can produce more of it.
"Our Creative Industries Sector Deal committed to strengthening intellectual property rights by bringing industry together to tackle online piracy, including through our £2 million investment in the Get It Right campaign.
"When we don't get content the right way, it makes it so much more difficult to make more of it."
