MPAA chief testifies on movie piracy
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China, a movie market of exceptional potential, is also a haven for film piracy, the president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America testified Thursday.
Speaking before the House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing on trade with China, Dan Glickman said that country “is the most difficult market in the world for the U.S. motion picture industry.” The country of 1.3 billion allows only 20 non-Chinese movies into its theaters every year, Glickman said, while illegal DVDs of American movies flood the streets.
“More than nine out of every 10 DVDs in the China market is a fake,” Glickman testified, costing American studios $244 million in lost revenue in 2005.
The MPAA chief said that on one recent visit to Beijing, he even found bootleg copies of a movie made by his producer son, Jonathan Glickman. The shop was raided and closed, but he said he found it open again and full of pirated movies on a subsequent visit.
Glickman appeared alongside representatives of U.S. manufacturing, pharmaceutical and book publishing industries.
“I believe we must step up enforcement, open the market, possibly take legal action,” Glickman said.
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