MPAA Goes After China

[Taxi]

Link

The U.S. will file two complaints against China at the World Trade Organization aimed at stopping what it said is piracy of copyrighted movies, music, software and books.

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab announced that cases will be filed tomorrow at the Geneva-based trade arbiter. One case argues that China sets too high a value on pirated movie or music disks before prosecuting violators. The second objects to Chinese restrictions on the sale of foreign books and movies.

"This is something our industry has been frustrated about for a very long time," Dan Glickman, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, said in an interview. The WTO complaints "are long overdue."

Well, at least they're going after the folks who appear to be the biggest problem.

[rixrex]

Yeah, but they're going to need a lot of good luck to get China to do anything about it. They (China's govt) are not eager to cut back on things that bring cash into the country. It's considered copyrighted material and piracy if the sovereign nation in question agrees that it is.

Look at what went on with the lead paint stuff. China paid it a lot of lip service, but then they also started making bogus claims about US products coming to China being sub-par. This is a nation that has shown it thinks it can exist without foreign markets in the past, and it probably can.

Also, culturally, duplication of artistic endeavors is not considered taboo in China, and is often thought of as a form of flattery. Of course duplicationg DVDs is really just to make money, not the same as copying a single work of art, but the stigma is not there.