Media Counter Piracy in China In New Ways
Some top entertainment companies are taking a new tack in dealing with knockoffs of movies, music and videogames in China: Instead of fighting to end piracy, they're working around the pirates.
U.S. videogame giant Electronic Arts Inc. has moved its global online-games operation to China, and is opening an online-games studio there in an effort to thwart piracy of its products. Time Warner Inc. film studio Warner Bros. is breaking a Hollywood tradition by releasing movies on DVD in China the same day they premiere in the U.S., beating copycats at their own distribution game.
Music labels are profiting by selling songs to advanced cellphone services, while also pushing into artist management, concert promotion and commercial sponsorships.
China is the world's epicenter of entertainment piracy, a vast market where knockoffs are so common that illicit street vendors are often the major source of videos, music and games. Some 85%, or $411 million, of recorded music sold in China last year was pirated, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. U.S. film companies last year lost an estimated $280 million in box-office and video sales from piracy in China, says the Motion Picture Association of America.
CHINA: SERVE THE PEOPLE
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? Higher Education for Sale
To fight piracy, the entertainment industry seizes hoards of illegal discs and lobbies the U.S. government for stronger intellectual-property laws -- to little effect. Now, it is focusing on finding ways to profit alongside the pirates. "We have been forced to think outside of the box," says Harry Hui, the Southeast Asia president of Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group. Mark Cohen, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's representative in Beijing, agrees: Piracy "has to drive adaptations in your business model."
That is exactly what Electronic Arts is doing. The Redwood City, Calif., company reaps most of its revenue in the U.S. and Europe by selling videogames on discs that play on computers or consoles. Those games are relatively easy to copy, however, earning Electronic Arts little profit in China.
Early next year, Electronic Arts is set to begin selling online games in China from its Chinese game studio. In cafes or homes with broadband access, China's online gamers subscribe to Internet services that deliver live games simultaneously to thousands of people who play against each other. While online games aren't impossible to copy, the servers are more complicated to crack than duplicating a DVD.
"If you can take your product and turn it into a service, you can certainly make many more strides with piracy," says Erick Hachenburg, Electronic Arts' senior vice president of global online publishing, who moved to Shanghai a year ago to start the operation.
Electronic Arts is playing catch-up with domestic companies that have already created a booming online-games market. Market researcher DFC Intelligence of San Diego forecasts that the online-games market will grow to $1.7 billion in 2010 from $540 million this year, as China's Internet users, now numbering about 100 million, continue to increase.
No industry has lost more to Chinese pirates than American movies. Warner Bros. in June released the film "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" on DVD in China on the same day that the movie premiered on screens in the U.S. That enabled Warner Bros. to reap sales in China that likely would have gone to pirates selling discs that are made by surreptitiously videotaping the movie as it plays on the screen in the theater or through other covert means. To help prevent the Chinese discs from being copied and sold in the U.S., the company includes Chinese subtitles -- a necessity in China, but a nuisance elsewhere.
The same-day DVD initiative doesn't prevent pirates from copying the legitimate DVDs and reselling them, but Warner Bros.' aim is to at least make some profit. Warner Bros. declined to say how many other films will be released on DVD on the same day as the U.S. premiere.
Earlier this year, Warner Bros. also lowered the price of many DVDs it sells in China to between $2 and $4 each, bringing them closer to the 75 cents to $1 charged by pirates.
A company called R2G, founded two years ago by a group of Chinese entrepreneurs, monitors the distribution of online music for record companies. The company says it represents labels that own more than 70% of the content in the Chinese market, including Universal, Warner Music and all of China's independent domestic labels.
With monitoring help from the Chinese government, R2G compels Chinese Web sites to stop distributing songs free and to use only licensed content, says Chief Operating Officer Scarlett Li. Among the successes R2G claims was to persuade Chinese search-engine company Baidu.com Inc. to stop linking to sites selling cellphone downloads that distribute unlicensed songs. Baidu has said it is cooperating with R2G to resolve intellectual-property-rights issues.
As entertainment companies are tackling pirates by trying to beat them at their own game, they also are finding alternate ways to boost revenue because they realize they can't stop piracy completely.
For instance, Universal Music Group is promoting concerts, managing artists and entering into commercial sponsorships. The label's mainland operation, through a joint venture with Shanghai Media Group, develops and manages new artists for events and programs such as the talent-search television hit "Lycra My Show," in which contestants belt out tunes in stretchy pants to promote the sponsor's fabric.
"Lycra My Show" is aired on free TV channels, but fans can pay about $1 a month for behind-the-scenes extras on the joint venture's Web site. Universal also makes money from advertisers on the show and from selling the show to other channels. Such ventures make CDs just "one of many sources of income," says Universal's Mr. Hui.
Record companies are finding that licensing songs to advanced cellphone services such as ringback tones, which allow users to download a song snippet and use it as the ring their callers hear, is another way to increase revenue and stay ahead of the copycats. Chinese singer Yang Chengang shot to stardom recently when his syrupy ballad, "Mice Love Rice," became the ringback tone for some 10 million Chinese mobile phones. In one month, his ringback generated as much revenue as about 700,000 CDs, says Tom Online Inc., a Beijing company listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market that holds a copyright on the song and sells it online.
Tom Online, noting Mr. Yang's success, is now actively recruiting amateur Chinese singers to record songs specifically for its Web users. Novice crooners are invited to upload their songs to the company's Web site; Tom then picks the best ones to sell to cellphone users. The company now has about 200 singers under contract. Ringtone and ringback songs in China in generally cost less than 50 cents a download.
"It's kind of like 'American Idol' meets wireless in China," says Jay Chang, Tom Online's deputy chief financial officer.
媒体公司另辟蹊径在华反盗版
一些顶级娱乐公司正在采取一项新策略来应对电影、音乐和视频游戏产品在中国遭遇的盗版问题：不仅仅是与盗版者做斗争，同时也采取了其他变通方式。
美国的视频游戏业巨头电子艺界(Electronic Arts Inc.)已将其全球网络游戏业务迁到了中国，并即将在华开设一家网络游戏制作室，以期使其产品免于在中国遭遇盗版。时代华纳公司(Time Warner Inc.)旗下的电影制片厂华纳兄弟(Warner Bros.)则打破了好莱坞的一项传统，新影片在美国首映的当天，影片DVD同时在中国推出，此举也是为了打击盗版者。
各唱片公司在中国不仅通过出售手机音乐获利，还开始涉足艺术家管理、音乐会推广和商业赞助业务。
中国是世界上娱乐产品盗版活动的大本营，在这一巨大市场上盗版活动是如此常见，以致于街头兜售盗版产品的小贩成了人们获取影音和游戏产品的主要来源。据国际唱片业联盟(International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, 简称IFPI)称，中国去年销售的录音产品中约85%是盗版产品，价值4.11亿美元。美国电影协会(Motion Picture Association of America, 简称MPAA)则称，美国的电影公司去年在中国损失了约2.8亿美元的票房收入和影音产品销售收入。
为了反盗版，美国娱乐业在中国缴获了大量非法光盘，它还游说美国政府加大知识产权保护法的执行力度，但这一切却收效甚微。现在，美国娱乐业开始将注意力集中在寻找与盗版者共同获利的途径上。Vivendi Universal旗下Universal Music Group的东南亚区总裁Harry Hui说：“我们被迫打破常规思考问题。美国专利商标局(U.S. Patent and Trademark Office)驻北京的代表柯恒(Mark Cohen)对此表示赞同，他认为美国企业必须调整业务模式以适应中国的盗版现实。
这恰恰是电子艺界正在做的事情。这家公司在美国和欧洲市场的主要收入来源是出售可在电脑和游戏机上玩的游戏产品。但由于这些视频游戏光盘比较容易复制，因此电子艺界从中国赚取的利润寥寥无几。
明年初，电子艺界将开始在中国出售其在华游戏制作室开发的网络游戏。通过网吧和家中的宽频接入端口登入互联网的中国网络游戏玩家可以几千人同时玩一个游戏，大家在这个虚拟世界中捉对斯杀。虽然网络游戏并非不可复制，但要打入别人的伺服器可比复制一张DVD光盘复杂多了。
电子艺界负责全球网上出版物业务的高级副总裁埃里克?哈成伯格(Erick Hachenburg)说：“如果你能将自己的产品转化为服务，无疑能大大克服盗版造成的困扰。”哈成伯格一年前随同电子艺界的全球网络游戏业务一起移师上海。
电子艺界正在努力追赶中国国内的企业，后者已经开创了一个蓬勃发展的网络游戏市场。美国的市场研究机构DFC Intelligence预测说，随著中国的互联网用户从目前约1亿户的水平继续增长，到2010年中国网络游戏市场的规模将从今年的5.4亿美元增加到17亿美元。
没有哪个产业因中国的盗版而蒙受了比美国电影业更大的损失。华纳兄弟公司的影片《牛仔裤的夏天》(Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants)今年6月在美国首映的当天，该影片的光碟也在中国市场同步发售。这样华纳兄弟的这部影片才能从中国市场赚到钱，否则的话钱又会被出售盗版光碟的人赚去了。以往当美国影片在国内上映时，盗版者就会通过在影院内偷拍等方式得到影片的图像，然后再翻录成盗版光碟广泛出售。为了防止公司在中国发行的光碟被翻录后再在美国出售，华纳兄弟为其在中国销售的光碟加上了中文字幕，这些字幕对中国观众是必不可少的东西，但对世界其他地方的人来说则是个影响收视效果的恼人玩意儿。
在影片首映当天推出DVD光碟并不能阻止盗版者将合法的DVD光碟复制后再行出售，华纳兄弟公司希望通过这一方法至少能赚到一些钱。该公司拒绝透露它还有多少影片能做到在美国首映的当天即在中国推出影片DVD光碟。
今年早些时候，华纳兄弟公司还将其在华出售的许多DVD光碟作了降价处理，每张光碟的价格被下调到2至4美元之间，从而更加接近盗版光碟每张75美分至1美元的价格。
两年前由一批中国企业家创办的公司R2G负责为唱片公司监督网络音乐的分销情况。这家公司称，中国市场超过70%的网络音乐内容都归它所代理的唱片公司所拥有，这些公司包括Universal、Warner Music以及中国国内的各家唱片公司。
R2G的首席运营长Scarlett Li说，在中国政府的帮助下，该公司已迫使中国的各网站停止免费提供歌曲下载服务，这些网站以后只能使用获得授权的音乐内容。R2G举出的成功一例是，他劝说中国的搜索引擎公司百度在线网络技术公司(Baidu.com Inc.)停止链接那些提供未经授权歌曲的网站。百度则表示，它正与R2G合作解决知识产权保护方面的问题。
就在娱乐公司通过与盗版者同场竞技的方式来与其作斗争之时，他们也在寻找可以增加收入的替代方式，因为这些公司意识到他们无法完全禁绝盗版。
例如，Universal Music Group正在中国从事音乐会推广、艺术家管理和商业赞助等工作。该公司通过与上海文广新闻传媒集团(Shanghai Media Group)成立的一家合资企业来为“莱卡我型我秀”(Lycra My Show)等热门电视娱乐节目培养和管理艺术新人。
“莱卡我型我秀”节目在免费电视频道播放，该节目的热心观众每月支付1美元左右就可在上述合资企业的网站看到该节目的幕后花絮。Universal还可以节目广告上挣到钱，而向其他电视频道出售这一节目的播映权也有利可图。Universal的Harry Hui说，这家合资企业还有许多赚钱门道，出CD唱片就是其中之一。
唱片公司发现，将歌曲授权给手机作为个性化彩铃也是一条增加收入的途径。中国歌手杨成刚最近一举成名，因为他的甜歌“老鼠爱大米”被中国约1,000万手机用户选作了自己的手机彩铃。据总部位于北京的TOM在线有限公司(Tom Online Inc.)称，这首歌曲一个月内从彩铃方面获得的收入抵得上出售70万张CD唱片的销售额。在那斯达克上市的TOM在线拥有这首歌曲的版权，并通过网络出售这首歌的使用权。
TOM在线有鉴于杨成刚取得的成功，正在积极招募业余歌手，让他们专为网络用户录制歌曲。Tom在线会从这些歌曲中挑选出最好的卖给手机用户。该公司目前约有200位签约歌手。在中国通常只要花5毛钱就能下载一段手机彩铃。
