The media industry wheeled out its biggest guns at Comdex 2002 in Las Vegas today in an attempt to enlist the support of the technology industry in fighting digital piracy. George Lucas, director of the Star Wars films, and Peter Chernin, president of News Corporation and chairman of Fox Entertainment Group, said that the "epidemic" of digital theft threatens to strangle the creativity of artists and the growth of the technology industry.

Lucas insisted that pirates who believe that they are only hurting the big media corporations are ultimately harming the creative artists and jeopardising the future of the movie industry. "In the end somebody gets ripped off. Somebody is getting screwed and I'm going to represent that group that's being screwed most. We're trapped between the consumer and the corporation," he told the audience.

Chernin called for a "partnership" between the media and technology industries to combat digital theft. "The unauthorised downloading and illegal redistribution of copyrighted content has become an epidemic. And the rapid spread of this digital robbery is not only damaging, it is wrong, because it is a crime," he said.