Hong Kong – The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has launched Operation Takedown, an enforcement and outreach initiative to run till July 31, 2008, across 13 territories in Asia Pacific including Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. Coinciding with the summer release schedule of MPA member companies, the biannual anti-piracy initiative will focus on eliminating piracy with crackdowns on camcording of premiering titles in cinemas, as well as illegal copying and online distribution. Operation Takedown’s secondary target will be production facilities including factories and burner operations, as well as distribution and sales at retail hot spots across the region. MPA has found some 90% of pirated movies originate from unauthorized recordings from cinemas, usually within the first few days of the release, and distributed worldwide digitally via peer-to-peer file-sharing networks and other online outlets. MPA found 33 such recordings of MPA member titles in 2007 Asia Pacific, up 65% from 20 incidences in 2006. Over the past four years, the regional anti piracy operations conducted by MPA bi-annually have resulted in over 5,000 arrests and 32million pirated optical discs seized.