The Chinese government is starting to crack down on copyright infringement on a more systematic fashion. A Shanghai court ruled that the Shanghai Le Ying AV Products Company DVD retail outlet, located in the city’s central business district, was guilty of copyright infringement for selling pirated versions of Motion Picture
Association (MPA) member company movies.

The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court ordered the defendant to pay three plaintiffs – all MPA member companies – damages and costs of RMB25,000 (US$3,230).

In September 2006, the MPA filed 20 civil complaints against three pirate movie retail outlets known collectively as Ka De Club shops. The rulings were part of that series of complaints, and disposed of three of seven complaints against Shanghai Le Ying, a Ka De Club company.

The remaining four complaints against Shanghai Le Ying are scheduled to be heard on March 29, 2007. In seven complaints against Shanghai Le Ying, the plaintiffs asked for total compensation of over RMB1.6 million (US$206,763) in relation to the infringement of 24 movie title copyrights.

On December 22, 2006, the Shanghai 2nd Intermediate People’s Court ordered the Shanghai Di Kai AV Products Company, another Ka De Club outlet, to desist from illegal sales of pirated movies and pay six MPA member company plaintiffs damages and costs of RMB177,752 (US$22,746). The Court also ordered the defendant to pay a fine of RMB50,000 (US$6,398), noting that the defendant had repeatedly flouted China’s
copyright law.

“The MPA is undeniably pleased that Shanghai Le Ying has been judged to have infringed our member companies’ copyrights, and that the Court is supporting the government’s effort to educate people that that there is a price to pay for copyright infringement, and that respect for copyright is important,” said Frank Rittman, Vice President and Regional Legal Counsel, Asia-Pacific for the Motion Picture Association, which coordinated the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs.

“However, the Shanghai Le Ying AV Products Company and its sister companies have repeatedly demonstrated contempt for China’s laws through the unauthorized and unlawful sale of MPA member company movies, and we are disappointed at the paltry amounts of the awards, which amount only to a negligible cost of doing business for these criminals.”

The MPA and its member companies maintain active litigation programs in many countries aimed at defending member companies’ copyrights against unauthorized and illegal infringement. The MPA has concluded more than 15 civil actions in China, all of which have been all settled or judged in favor of the MPA member company plaintiffs. There are more than 35 other cases pending.

A comprehensive study aimed at producing a more accurate picture of the impact that piracy has on the film industry including, for the first time, losses due to internet piracy, recently calculated that the MPA studios lost US$6.1 billion to worldwide piracy in 2005.

About US$2.4 billion was lost to bootlegging, US$1.4 billion to illegal copying and US$2.3 billion to Internet piracy. Of the US$6.1 billion in lost revenue to the studios, approximate $1.2 billion came from piracy across the Asia-Pacific region, while piracy in the U.S. accounted for $1.3 billion.

In 2006, the MPA’s operations in the Asia-Pacific region investigated more than 30,000 cases of piracy and assisted law enforcement officials in conducting nearly 12,400 raids. These activities resulted in the seizure of more than 35 million illegal optical discs, 50 factory optical disc production lines and 4,482 optical disc burners, as well as the initiation of more than 11,000 legal actions.

Story filed 11.03.07