While we recently heard of a raid on a New York piracy operation, and tend to think the MPAA operates mostly within the confines of the United States, here is an interesting development regarding legal proceedings against piracy in China. Certainly this goes beyond coordinated efforts inside the U.S., to a worldwide effort. Curiously, the same 'violators' have done this before. Here is the kind of damages sought in this case:
| They are seeking damages of RMB 60,000 per infringed title [editors note: RMB = CNY or ~$ 7,552 USD], as well as legal costs and a pledge to cease and desist from all illegal sales of pirated movies. |
It is obvious that piracy exists in China because of the lack of choice the general population doesn't have in terms of finding certain Western/foreign titles, given the fact it is well-known the Chinese government (even when allowing access to foreign cartoons recently, for example) might later change its mind and replace foreign programming with Chinese programming'”to reduce other competition. While price is not named as a factor in China (as it would be as one of the reasons for piracy in the U.S., due to inflated CD/DVD prices in general), the lack of variety and the freedom to choose are two factors. Yet, the greatest irony is how the MPAA representative brazenly criticizes the Chinese government for its closed market system as the culprit, but we will likely never see the day any MPAA official admits how overpriced DVD releases are here, nor are we ever likely to see any 'transparency' regarding the actual number of titles reproduced, nor the real costs per title (in order to publish actual costs so DVD costs reflect their costs plus a reasonable profit). It is truly sad that while the MPAA promotes 'educational efforts,' it does not comport itself in an 'educated' fashion in the sense of being honest with the United States paying public; the same 'transparency' the MPAA advocates in China is something that will likely never be seen in the U.S., as this would mean the MPAA would lose control over artificially adjusting supply and pricing, losing the battle to the same 'free market forces' in the U.S. it manipulates currently.
Source: Indian Television
