Hollywood Works With Beijing To Thwart Piracy
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 box-office receipts. 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-video-disc 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.
中国政府和好莱坞联手打击电影盗版
为了打击中国国内肆无忌惮的电影盗版活动，美国电影协会(Motion Picture Association)与中国政府签署了一份协议，旨在保护外国电影在影院首轮上映期间避免DVD盗版。
这家好莱坞贸易团体和中国文化部(China's Ministry of Culture)及国家广播电影电视总局(the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television)签署的备忘录标志著三方首次联手合作打击盗版，以此保护电影票房。此举也正值美国对北京施加越来越多的压力、敦促后者解决保护知识产权不力的问题之际。
好莱坞日益认为中国的票房收入将成为其国际收入的一个重要来源。去年，中国的票房收入上升一倍，超过了3亿美元。然而，长期以来，中国对盗版的打击力度不够已经严重放慢了票房收入的增长，对于进口好莱坞大片更是如此。几乎总是这些电影一公开上映，大街小巷就出现了盗版DVD。
美国电影协会的地区主管Mike Ellis称，新协议“将把部分注意力放在即将上映的新片上”。他对知识产权保护的前景表示乐观。
新协议本身并没有修正打击盗版的法律，但为两国政府机构树立了一个协作提高执法水平的框架。现在，文化部将获得一份中国各大影院新片上映计划的观察名单。根据中国政府机关的职权划分，文化部只负责打击DVD盗版，并不管理影片发行事宜，后者归国家广播电影电视总局监管。
文化部将把影片公开上映之前、期间和之后在市面上发现的所有DVD视为盗版。过去，好莱坞电影公司常常抱怨，中国政府的反盗版合作仅仅是建立在个案的基础上，只是在他们指出具体状况的事件的时候才会予以打击。
