Drawing a line in the sand, MPAA president and CEO Jack Valenti declared war on film pirates during an unscheduled appearance Monday at ShoWest, the annual motion picture convention.

Gearing his remarks to the many foreign distributors and exhibitors gathered for International Day, the first day of the four-day event, Valenti revealed plans for an international trailer that is being developed to discourage piracy. Calling piracy the biggest issue confronting film exhibitors worldwide, Valenti sounded the battle cry, "It's piracy, stupid!"

That theme already had been struck earlier in the morning, when Millard Ochs, president of Warner Bros. International Theatres, warned at the keynote breakfast that "Piracy is like ... a disease. Piracy should be deemed a disease of business."

"Right now, we lose $3.5 billion a year in analog piracy," Valenti said of a threat that has become more severe because of the ease of digital duplication. Every 24 hours, 400,000-600,000 downloads of copyright movies take place, he said.

In Thailand, Valenti estimated, piracy represents 70% of the country's film business, costing MPAA companies $26 million-$30 million a year. In Malaysia, he said, it approaches 75% a year and costs $42 million-$45 million, and in China, piracy climbs as high as 90%. Russia, he warned, "is becoming a significant supplier of pirated material."