U.S. Movie Studios Hail Landmark China Piracy Deal
Mon Jul 18, 2005
By Doug Young
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A trade group led by top Hollywood studios like Time Warner Inc.'s (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Warner Bros has signed an anti-piracy pact with China, making a small but significant advance in a long-running battle against endemic piracy in the country.
The Motion Picture Association hailed it as progress in a fight against the rampant piracy in China that costs Western firms an estimated hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
Piracy has been a perennial thorn in the side of U.S.-China relations. The group's announcement comes days after a U.S. delegation led by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez descended on Beijing for trade and intellectual property talks.
Under their new memorandum of understanding, the U.S. movie association -- whose members also included Walt Disney Co. (DIS.N: Quote, Profile, Research), General Electric's (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Universal unit and Viacom's (VIAb.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Paramount -- will send Chinese regulators a list of movies scheduled for release in the country every three months.
The agreement provided for stricter policing of counterfeit films and stricter prosecution, the film association said in a statement released late on Friday.
"All home video products that are available in the marketplace prior to the legitimate home video release date in China will be deemed illegal... and forfeited," the group said.
"And when a criminal copyright infringement offence has been committed, the case will be prosecuted," it added.
HISTORIC MOVE
The agreement between the association and China's Ministry of Culture and State Administration of Radio, Film and Television is targeted at curtailing piracy of newly released movies.
Mike Ellis, the motion picture association's regional director for Asia, called the agreement historic, and said he hoped it would quickly bear fruit.
Pirated movies are often available in China before their theatrical release. At about 8 yuan ($1.00) apiece, they go for a fraction of the cost of a movie ticket.
Unauthorized disks of "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" appeared on the streets of Beijing for sale less than a week after the movie's global premiere in May.
Industry players have long complained that China does not do enough to combat movie piracy, which costs film studios an estimated $280 million annually in lost sales.
They say Chinese authorities will often cooperate on a case-by-case basis when specific instances are pointed out.
But the country is said to be less active in initiating its own actions or in enforcement, often dishing out penalties to offenders -- such as fines -- that amount to little more than a slap on the wrist.
($1=8.276 Yuan)
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