Bardem, film-makers urge treaty against piracy

* Piracy denounced as "biggest bane of industry"

* Stars back global treaty which U.N. agency sees in 2012

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, July 19 (Reuters) - Spanish actor Javier Bardem and film-makers urged Internet users on Tuesday to support creative industries struggling to survive in an age of digital piracy by shunning illegal downloading of free films and music.

British film director Iain Smith, Egyptian producer Esaad Younis and Indian producer and director Bobby Bedi joined Bardem in appealing for a new global treaty to boost audiovisual performers' rights.

The Oscar-winning Bardem, now starring in "Biutiful", said of the movie industry: "More than 90 percent of people have serious problems to pay the rent, the bills and even eat.

"Remuneration is crucial, not for me but for the 90 percent who have serious problems in making a living."

Actors' rights -- unlike those of directors, screenwriters and musicians -- were not protected under current international copyright law, he told a news conference.

"We bring something else, we are authors in a sense."

The Spaniard, who took home an Academy Award for his best supporting actor role in the 2007 Coen brothers film "No Country for Old Men", is married to Penelope Cruz, who stars opposite Johnny Depp in "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides".

Bardem, referring to non-paying downloaders on the Internet, said: "People think they harm the producer that flies around in a private jet or has five swimming pools or the Hollywood actor with three mansions in every town.

"They are wrong. They are harming people who are hardly making a living."

Digital technology has made it easy and cheap to download new cultural works around the world instantaneously.

"It does permit theft of our product at high-quality. It's just not perceived as theft," Bardem said.

"HOLLYWOOD NIGHTMARE"

Smith, a Scottish-born producer whose works include "Seven Years in Tibet", said the Hollywood dream had become a "Hollywood nightmare".

"Piracy is a huge threat, it has caused a massive loss of revenue to American-based industry and others," he said, estimating the U.S. industry alone lost $25 billion last year.

"Avatar" had 16.5 million illegal downloads, followed by "Kick Ass" at 11.4 million, while ticket sales had fallen, Smith said.

"Audience demand is clearly for magic, but it comes at a price. There has to be a contract between the money and the art, the investment and the creation," he said.

Bedi said digital technology offered an opportunity for the industry to develop. "But if it is mishandled it can be a huge problem for us. Piracy is the biggest bane of my industry."

His native India, home to the "Bollywood" film industry, had copyright laws but they were not fully enforced, he said.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a United Nations agency that protects copyright, aims to reach agreement on a new international pact on audiovisual performers' rights next year, WIPO director-general Francis Gurry said.

An agreement between the United States and European Union last month paved the way for concluding a pact as early as mid-2012, although the ratification process by WIPO's 184 member states would take longer, said Gurry.

"We're hoping this treaty will contribute to making a more comprehensive international legal framework by including actors' rights," he told reporters.

(Editing by Ralph Gowling)