China Cracks Down On DVD Pirates

The once familiar cry of peddlers selling pirate DVDs on the streets of Beijing is disappearing as the government finally acts on pledges to end the practice – at least until after the Olympics.

The authorities yesterday ordered a "100-day drive against pirate copies", with officials on call 24 hours to act on reports of illegal CDs and DVDs going on sale.

"Strike hard against all kinds of pirate copies violating rights and against illegal publishing activities," their notice said. "Go all out to create a healthy cultural market environment for the Beijing Olympic Games."

They already begun to act in recent months, closing down some shops that specialised in selling what were often poor quality versions of international blockbusters, usually within two or three days of their going on general release.

The courts have also begun to find in favour of international fashion brands who have sued local producers for copying their handbags and other luxury goods.

In the most prominent location for street sellers of Hollywood films - on the main avenue near the old Friendship Store - peddlers who until last month would sidle up to foreigners with a plastic bag full of films have been replaced by signs warning that they will not be tolerated.

"We have regular inspections," said Lu Ping, manager of a store selling mostly music CDs opposite Beijing West railway station. "We have to show the receipts that prove we bought them from authorised distributors."

Some outlets seem not to have been affected so far, however. The second "Friendship Store", in north-east Beijing, which has always maintained an impressively wide if poorly produced selection of films and American and BBC television series, said it had yet to receive any notice about the crackdown.

"I don't know what we would do about that," a store assistant said.

China has long been regarded as a the main target of campaigners against the trade in pirate goods, music and film, and the United States has lodged a complaint at the World Trade Organisation against the country.

A spokesman for the Federation against Copyright Theft said even now the pirate DVD trade in the United Kingdom was thought to be dominated by Chinese criminal gangs, though most copies were burned in Britain.

Story source: telegraph.co.uk.