Movie Industry Keeps Pressure on Chinese Piracy Market
United States President George Bush has spent the last week in Asia, spreading good will and cheer to various allies. Perhaps the most important segment of his trip was the three days spent in China, where Bush addressed issues of political and economic reform. Both these issues tie into another key area: intellectual property.
As many know, China is a world leader for many industries, including piracy. Not only is piracy common, it has become the standard for home entertainment. Some estimates contend that as much as 90% of all digital entertainment is an illegitimate copy.
One of President Bush's goals during his trip was also to address the significant trade gap between the United States and China. Because of import restrictions, the United States only shipped $39.8 billion in goods to China, while China shipped $132.5 billion. With this staggering trade deficit, American goods such as DVDs and software have a difficult time penetrating the Chinese market.
Since American goods have a difficult time penetrating the Chinese market, consumers are forced to find alternative sources - namely pirated material. Historically, China has been lax in its enforcement efforts against pirate manufacturers. Progress is being made, however the United States government is still concerned.
In April of 2005, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) placed China on its priority watch list. Citing that China is making genuine efforts to reduce intellectual property theft, the USTR found that Beijing’s progress was "weak." Despite the massive upwelling of piracy, trade sanctions do no appear to be on the table.
What is on the table is more pressure from the Bush administration. During Bush's visit, intellectual property rights enforcement was a key point of discussion. Intellectual property owners have been more optimistic, as China has slowly warming to international concerns. China’s entry into the WTO (World Trade Organization) in 2000 holds the country to a high standard or intellectual property rights protection. This is in addition to China signing the “U.S.-China IPR Enforcement” in 1995.
Yet international agreements, concerns, protests and official protests can only go so far. Without any real threat of trade sanctions or other action, the Chinese government’s motivation to counter piracy remains low. The Chinese governments priorities may have been shaken by Bush’s pressure, prompting Chinese President Hu Jintao to address the issue.
"I made it clear to Mr. President that the Chinese side is willing to step up its protection of intellectual property rights, enhance its efforts in fighting crimes involving the violations of intellectual property rights and stands ready to increase its cooperation with the United States in this regard."
However in a trip that has been largely classified as an exchange of niceties and an aversion to insults, the weight of this statement can be best classified as questionable. It appears the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) isn't placing too much credence in Hu's remarks either. MPAA president Dan Glickman will testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security later today, in an attempt to keep US government pressure on China.
"Rampant piracy in China has been exacerbated by strict market access barriers, which thwart efforts to deliver legitimate entertainment products to China and gives pirates free reign to fill the demand for U.S. films," said Glickman. "I look forward to providing members of this Committee my views on the severity of this problem and how we can curb the stinging trend of piracy in China."
The MPAA has spent less time combating P2P piracy than its RIAA brethren. Rather, it has fought a more intelligent war by going after what many consider are the real pirates; DVD/CD replication plants who are selling illegitimate physical copies for profit. As box office totals and movie profits continue to slump, exerting pressure in the right spots will likely yield more successful results.
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Posted by DiscBurn, a leader in DVD duplication, replication, VHS to DVD transfers, and disc equipment.
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