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Bootlegging returns with Superman sequel
By The Hollywood Reporter
http://news.com.com/Bootlegging+returns+with+Superman+sequel/2100-1026_3-6121137.html
As "Superman Returns" made its worldwide DVD debut Thursday in China as part of a counter-offensive against pirates, a pristine bootleg version was selling in Beijing for the equivalent of $1.25.
Warner Home Video said Thursday that "Superman" has been released on DVD to thousands of Chinese retailers two months earlier than anywhere else in the world. But still, the pirates beat the studio to the punch.
"That doesn't surprise me," said Mark Horak, executive vice president and general manager of Warner Home Video, Asia Pacific and Latin America. "But at least now a consumer there has a choice of buying a legitimate copy, of higher quality and with all the extras, for not much more."
The Mandarin-language DVDs cost more than what counterfeit DVDs typically sell for. The single-disc "Superman Returns" costs about $1.75 (14 yuan), while the two-disc special edition is available for $2.75.
A pirated boxed DVD copy of "Superman Returns," with a crisp picture and audio and subtitles in Mandarin and English, was purchased by a reporter Thursday for $1.25 from a brightly lit and well-organized shop opening onto a popular Beijing bar street frequented by expatriates and just around the corner from a police station.
Legitimate DVDs of the summer movie, encrypted to make it difficult to copy, are now on sale at more than 8,000 Chinese retail outlets, many of which previously carried only pirated copies of Hollywood movies, according to CAV Warner Home Entertainment, the joint venture Warner formed in November 2004 with China Audio Video.
"Piracy is a big problem in China, as it is in many markets around the world, and it requires a very specific approach and strategy to fight," said Horak, who estimates that Warner alone loses "several millions of dollars a year" to piracy,
He added that while Warner has been steadily pushing up DVD release dates in China, the "Superman Returns" window is twice as long as any previous one. In the past Warner has stuck to traditional retailers, But with "Superman," the studio took square aim at the many independently run storefronts--"bodegas," Horak calls them--that deal primarily in counterfeit goods.
"Imagine walking through a city and every 100 yards or so is a little store that sells pirated product," Horak said. "The campaign we put together behind 'Superman Returns' is intended to build out our distribution for Hollywood product in those stores that previously only sold pirated product."
The unprecedented step was taken in conjunction with the Chinese Ministry of Culture's anti-piracy initiatives, Horak said. Spurred by reports from the foreign lobbying arm of the major Hollywood studios that China's piracy rate, at 95 percent, is among the highest in the world, Chinese authorities in July began a 100-day crackdown on retail sellers of illegally copied optical discs, stepping up raids on shops and warehouses and inspections at airports, harbors and railroad stations.
"The fight against piracy requires a supportive environment from the entire society," Zhang Xinjian, deputy general director of the Audio-Video Market Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Culture, said from CAV Warner, the first in-country DVD business established in China by a U.S. studio.
"Superman" won't be released in the United States until Nov. 28 at $28.98 for the single disc and $34.99 for the two-disc special edition. In other countries, the DVD goes on sale at about the same time.
By The Hollywood Reporter
http://news.com.com/Bootlegging+returns+with+Superman+sequel/2100-1026_3-6121137.html
As "Superman Returns" made its worldwide DVD debut Thursday in China as part of a counter-offensive against pirates, a pristine bootleg version was selling in Beijing for the equivalent of $1.25.
Warner Home Video said Thursday that "Superman" has been released on DVD to thousands of Chinese retailers two months earlier than anywhere else in the world. But still, the pirates beat the studio to the punch.
"That doesn't surprise me," said Mark Horak, executive vice president and general manager of Warner Home Video, Asia Pacific and Latin America. "But at least now a consumer there has a choice of buying a legitimate copy, of higher quality and with all the extras, for not much more."
The Mandarin-language DVDs cost more than what counterfeit DVDs typically sell for. The single-disc "Superman Returns" costs about $1.75 (14 yuan), while the two-disc special edition is available for $2.75.
A pirated boxed DVD copy of "Superman Returns," with a crisp picture and audio and subtitles in Mandarin and English, was purchased by a reporter Thursday for $1.25 from a brightly lit and well-organized shop opening onto a popular Beijing bar street frequented by expatriates and just around the corner from a police station.
Legitimate DVDs of the summer movie, encrypted to make it difficult to copy, are now on sale at more than 8,000 Chinese retail outlets, many of which previously carried only pirated copies of Hollywood movies, according to CAV Warner Home Entertainment, the joint venture Warner formed in November 2004 with China Audio Video.
"Piracy is a big problem in China, as it is in many markets around the world, and it requires a very specific approach and strategy to fight," said Horak, who estimates that Warner alone loses "several millions of dollars a year" to piracy,
He added that while Warner has been steadily pushing up DVD release dates in China, the "Superman Returns" window is twice as long as any previous one. In the past Warner has stuck to traditional retailers, But with "Superman," the studio took square aim at the many independently run storefronts--"bodegas," Horak calls them--that deal primarily in counterfeit goods.
"Imagine walking through a city and every 100 yards or so is a little store that sells pirated product," Horak said. "The campaign we put together behind 'Superman Returns' is intended to build out our distribution for Hollywood product in those stores that previously only sold pirated product."
The unprecedented step was taken in conjunction with the Chinese Ministry of Culture's anti-piracy initiatives, Horak said. Spurred by reports from the foreign lobbying arm of the major Hollywood studios that China's piracy rate, at 95 percent, is among the highest in the world, Chinese authorities in July began a 100-day crackdown on retail sellers of illegally copied optical discs, stepping up raids on shops and warehouses and inspections at airports, harbors and railroad stations.
"The fight against piracy requires a supportive environment from the entire society," Zhang Xinjian, deputy general director of the Audio-Video Market Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Culture, said from CAV Warner, the first in-country DVD business established in China by a U.S. studio.
"Superman" won't be released in the United States until Nov. 28 at $28.98 for the single disc and $34.99 for the two-disc special edition. In other countries, the DVD goes on sale at about the same time.
t:
DAMN BOOTLEGGERS
