China, Hollywood Group To Fight Movie Piracy
By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
July 19, 2005
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112171718346188603,00.html?mod=technology_main_whats_news
In a step toward combating rampant movie piracy in China, the Motion
Picture Association has signed an agreement with the Chinese government to
protect foreign films from DVD pirates during their first run at the cinema.
The memorandum of understanding between the Hollywood trade group, China's
Ministry of Culture and the State Administration of Radio, Film and
Television marks the first time the three have coordinated antipiracy
efforts to help protect the box office. The move also comes as the U.S. is
putting more pressure on Beijing to address China's lapses in guarding
intellectual property.
Hollywood increasingly believes Chinese box-office sales, which doubled to
more than $300 million last year, will be an important source of
international revenue. Yet China's long-running battle against piracy has
seriously slowed growth, particularly for imported Hollywood fare, which is
almost always available on the street from digital-videodisc pirates by the
time a movie hits theaters.
The new agreement "will bring some focus on the new titles coming out,"
said Mike Ellis, the MPA's regional director. "A piece of paper is only as
good as what you do with it, but I am optimistic that we can get better
protection than we have been."
The new agreement doesn't in itself change piracy laws but sets up a
framework for the two government agencies to coordinate their bureaucracies
to better enforce existing laws. Now the Ministry of Culture -- which is
charged with stopping DVD piracy but not distributing films to theaters --
will have a watch list of movies scheduled for theatrical release in the
country, which is regulated by the Radio, Film and Television administration.
Ministry of Culture authorities will treat as illegal all videos found in
markets in the run-up to, during and immediately after the films'
theatrical release. In the past, Hollywood studios have complained that
Chinese authorities cooperate with antipiracy efforts only on a
case-by-case basis, when specific instances are pointed out.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post.
_______________________________________________
MEDIANEWS mailing list
[email protected]
To unsubscribe send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
