Contact:
Mag. My Hue McGowran
Phone: +43-1-81140-308
E-Mail: mcgowran@newsfox.com
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New York (pte043/19.07.2005/16:41) - The Motion Picture Association http://www.mpaa.org has signed an anti-piracy deal with the Chinese government in order to curtail a burgeoning bootlegging of its property.
Piracy of DVDs and videos in China, which is viewed as the biggest producer in the world of counterfeit goods, is costing the industry US$3bn (2.48bn euros) a year worldwide, not including Internet piracy.
As part of the agreement the Chinese authorities will receive a list from the MPA of film releases in China every three months. Tougher policing of films and prosecutions will follow.
Beijing reported that it had made 2,600 arrests last month in an attempt to improve trade relations and crackdown on piracy.
The bootleg industry is booming in China and is blamed on the lack of cinemas: there are only 2,500 screens for 1.3 billion people. The latest Star Wars movies was available in Beijing not long after its release in May. The movies often cost only about $1 before their release.
Warner Bros aims to encourage Chinese to go to the cinema, and built its first multiplex in China three years ago. Film studios are also said to be experimenting with cut-price DVDs to compete with the pirates.
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