Hollywood Studios Win Chinese Piracy Case

BEIJING, December 20: Five Hollywood studios have won a
court case against a retailer of pirated DVDs in Beijing, who has been ordered
to pay just RMB164,000 ($21,000).

The prosecution against the Yu Hao Qing DVD retail outlet,
located in Beijing, and its parent company, Beijing Century Hai Hong Trading
Co. Ltd., was coordinated by the Motion Picture Association (MPA). The
defendants were found guilty of copyright infringement for selling pirated
versions of MPA member company movies.

“Worldwide, intellectual property theft is the biggest
threat to creativity today,” said Frank Rittman, the VP and regional legal
counsel for the Asia-Pacific at the MPA. “The outcome of this action is an
important milestone in the effort to educate people that respect for copyright
is important, and that there is a price to pay for copyright infringement.”

Rittman continued, “unquestionably one of the foundations of
China's piracy problems—and the piracy rate for motion pictures in China
is estimated at 93 percent—is the lack of market access accorded to
foreign films. The maintenance of the theatrical exhibition quota, combined
with the frequent imposition of ‘blackouts’ on the theatrical release of
foreign films, and the restrictions on home video distributors compared with
pirate retailers, give movie pirates a tremendous market advantage. Market
access, i.e. a more open market, is a prerequisite for reducing piracy, and
piracy affects foreign and domestic movie producers alike.”

MPA studios lost US$6.1 billion to worldwide piracy in 2005.
Of that, about $1.2 billion came from piracy across the Asia-Pacific region.