Industry News :: Governor's mission to terminate film pirates

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By Jane Macartney in Beijing
THE Governor of Calfornia, Arnold Schwarzenegger, arrived in Beijing yesterday on a mission to end the piracy of films and music in China.

The magnitude of his challenge was soon apparent as he was mobbed by fans, most of whom almost certainly recognised his face from watching his films on pirated DVDs.

The challenge facing the “Governator” this week is a tough one. He has to go only as far as the Silk Alley shopping centre on the Avenue of Eternal Peace that runs through the heart of Beijing to find stalls bulging with counterfeit products.

There, perfect copies of Mr Schwarzenegger’s True Lies or Batman Begins are on sale for 70p each. Shops flaunt pirated copies of the latest releases. The Legend of Zorro, which had its premiere days ago in Amer- ica, is already available for 35p — though the quality is not guaranteed. The new Pride & Prejudice should be on sale in a top-quality edition by the middle of next month.

At least 90 per cent of software programs and film DVDs sold in China are pirated, according to some industry estimates.

Hollywood’s main trade lobby group, the Motion Picture Association of America, wages a global war against film piracy, which it says costs the industry up to $3 billion (£1.7 billion) a year — almost all of that in China. Counterfeit software in the Asia-Pacific region cost US companies $8 billion last year alone.

Mr Schwarzenegger is not fighting a lone battle. Rob Portman, the US Trade Representative, was also in Beijing yesterday and singled out lax protection of patents, trademarks and other intellectual property. “Fakes on every street corner are an unbecoming symbol for a great power such as China,” he said.

Hollywood and software makers have been trying for years to halt the piracy but many of the manufacturers are believed to have links to the police and military.

China insists that it is doing its best, and the authorities are now making at least a show of cracking down.

“We don’t put copies of the latest movies on the shelves until after the inspectors have finished work,” one DVD shop assistant said, adding that American customers buy hundreds of pirated films at a time. “The crackdown is getting quite strict.”

Officials said in June that they had arrested 2,600 people during an eight-month crackdown on piracy and destroyed 63 million CDs and other counterfeit goods worth £65 million.

The piracy has at least served to make Mr Schwarzenegger a household name in China and yesterday’s adulation cannot have been unwelcome.

His popularity in California has slumped recently, and last week voters roundly rejected his plans to revive the Golden State’s economy.

His six-day trade mission to China gives him a chance to revive his political image. Accompanied by his wife, Maria Shriver, Mr Schwarzenegger yesterday addressed an event honouring the Special Olympics in China, attended a reception with the 80 business leaders accompanying him and received a red-carpet welcome from Hui Liangyu, the Chinese Deputy Prime Minister.

In Shanghai on Thursday the Terminator star will attend a premiere of the film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. A day later he will launch a public-service television advertisement with Jackie Chan, the action film star, that will also attack copyright infringement.