LexisNexis(TM) Academic - Document
Financial Times (London, England)
May 24, 2005 Tuesday
London Edition 1
SECTION: INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY; Pg. 9
LENGTH: 341 words
HEADLINE: US threatens to take film piracy war with China to WTO
BYLINE: By RICHARD MCGREGOR
DATELINE: BEIJING
BODY:
The US film industry yesterday threatened to push for action against China in the World Trade Organisation as illegal DVD copies of the latest Star Wars movie went on sale on Beijing's streets just a few days after its opening.
Dan Glickman, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, said piracy had not diminished in China despite the seizure of 500m discs by authorities in the last five years.
"This is the kind of thing that could raise trade tensions to the point where they affect bilateral relations," he said in an interview at the end of his first trip to China since his appointment in September.
Mr Glickman gave his meetings a personal touch by displaying a pirate DVD he had bought in Beijing of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a recently released filmed on which his son, Jonathan, was a producer.
Industry officials travelling with Mr Glickman said the Chinese authorities had attempted to find out where he had bought the disc so the shop could be shut down.
Mr Glickman, a former congressman and agriculture secretary in the Clinton administration, is one of a succession of senior US visitors to China in recent months to have warned Beijing about a backlash brewing in Washington.
WTO rules governing intellectual property rights allow member states to file complaints against other nations on the grounds that their copyright regimes are not acting as a deterrent against piracy.
Mr Glickman said he had tried to convince Beijing that enforcing intellectual property rights was in China's interest, allowing it to build vibrant local movie and music industries, which are also crippled by piracy.
Despite Chinese fears that their market could be swamped with US movies, China had a positive "balance of trade" in culture with America last year, Mr Glickman said, because of the box office success of films like Hero, a martial arts epic.
In November the global music industry urged the US and Europe to use trade agreements to demand tougher anti-piracy action from the governments of Russia, China, Mexico and Brazil.
LOAD-DATE: May 23, 2005
May 24, 2005 Tuesday
London Edition 1
SECTION: INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY; Pg. 9
LENGTH: 341 words
HEADLINE: US threatens to take film piracy war with China to WTO
BYLINE: By RICHARD MCGREGOR
DATELINE: BEIJING
BODY:
The US film industry yesterday threatened to push for action against China in the World Trade Organisation as illegal DVD copies of the latest Star Wars movie went on sale on Beijing's streets just a few days after its opening.
Dan Glickman, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, said piracy had not diminished in China despite the seizure of 500m discs by authorities in the last five years.
"This is the kind of thing that could raise trade tensions to the point where they affect bilateral relations," he said in an interview at the end of his first trip to China since his appointment in September.
Mr Glickman gave his meetings a personal touch by displaying a pirate DVD he had bought in Beijing of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a recently released filmed on which his son, Jonathan, was a producer.
Industry officials travelling with Mr Glickman said the Chinese authorities had attempted to find out where he had bought the disc so the shop could be shut down.
Mr Glickman, a former congressman and agriculture secretary in the Clinton administration, is one of a succession of senior US visitors to China in recent months to have warned Beijing about a backlash brewing in Washington.
WTO rules governing intellectual property rights allow member states to file complaints against other nations on the grounds that their copyright regimes are not acting as a deterrent against piracy.
Mr Glickman said he had tried to convince Beijing that enforcing intellectual property rights was in China's interest, allowing it to build vibrant local movie and music industries, which are also crippled by piracy.
Despite Chinese fears that their market could be swamped with US movies, China had a positive "balance of trade" in culture with America last year, Mr Glickman said, because of the box office success of films like Hero, a martial arts epic.
In November the global music industry urged the US and Europe to use trade agreements to demand tougher anti-piracy action from the governments of Russia, China, Mexico and Brazil.
LOAD-DATE: May 23, 2005
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