When a British schoolteacher asked pupils if any of them owned pirated DVDs, one proud 13-year-old's hand shot up. "I've got 250, Miss," he boasted. It was proof the course she was teaching was needed.

The pioneering scheme, created by the British film industry, educates children why piracy is nothing to brag about. It departs from the stick rather than carrot approach usually taken by the global creative industries to combat copyright theft.